books and reading

Michael Martinez understands Middle-earth as well as anyone I have read. He looks at the world Tolkien created as most readers do. Visualizing Middle-earth explores some of the more interesting points with a clear grasp of the facts. For anyone to question Martinez' scholarship is nuts. He shows where Tolkien drew the lines. Martinez also satisfies the reader's thirst for more knowledge and information.

Why should anyone want to read the dry theories of literary critics anyway? They don't talk about Middle-earth. They try to explain it all away as some escapist fantasy. Martinez lives the fantasy, which is what we all want to do when we read the book. He walks into Tolkien's imagination and unlocks door after door, leaving no hallway unexplored.

But even after an expert like Martinez finishes leading me through Middle-earth I feel the need to know more. His research and scholarship have always inspired me. I wish most writers had his thorough knowledge of the books. How many times have I picked up someone else's book and found simple mistakes? Too many.

You have to know Middle-earth better than Martinez to beat him at this game. Visualizing Middle-earth proves that Tolkien's books are worth studying in depth for their own sake. This is an important book for any serious Tolkien collector. Don't pass it up.

I can't understand why anyone would belittle the obvious high quality of the research behind this book. When I picked up Visualizing Middle-earth I thought it would talk about how to make a movie. There are some essays on the movies but the real work is about Middle-earth itself. I really enjoyed "Hobbit Tales, or Never There and Back Again", which reveals many anecdotes about Hobbit history you don't normally find in other books.

Another favorite part is the essay on the Rohirrim. I like the way Martinez carefully reviews all sides of the issue and weighs in fairly. He knows the material and has studied Tolkien's sources well enough. He understands what he is talking about better than many. The examination of the Icelandic sagas is a good example. Martinez picked two lesser-known sagas to show how a typical Icelandic tale is really laid out. He also goes into detail about Iceland's history. Maybe that bores some people who like to skip over relevant facts. But this is an important part of the process of understanding how Tolkien made up his legends.

Martinez also points out that the ancient Germans were around for a long time. He knows their history and culture and his arguments stand on clear fact and logic.

The two essays on the Dwarves are an astounding work of scholarship. The reader simply comes away wondering how Tolkien managed to write so much about the Dwarves and share so little of it. Martinez finds details in the oddest places and puts them together. He also traces the development of Tolkien's literary dwarves from evil creatures to the noble and dignified warriors of the Lord of the Rings.

The history of Arnor, told again and again from different points of view, comes alive under Martinez' hand. He tells the story as if he has lived it. He offers numerous citations from the books and substantiates nearly everything he says. Even after the fall of the kingdom, Eriador remains a busy, bustling place as Martinez talks about how the Shire kept trade going with other survivors.

The one essay sure to raise the hackles of Martinez' critics is the review of the Balrog wings controversy. Wired Magazine says Martinez lived through the Balrog wars, so he must have a first-hand point of view. He covers all the objections to Balrog wings logically. I think he is pretty fair about it. His pro-wing arguments are nothing like the distorted views anti-wingers fight against. Tilting at windmills must be a popular game among Tolkien critics.

But if you buy this book for only one reason, I think it should be for the essay at the very end. "Understanding Magic in Middle-earth" is the longest and most exceptional work in the book. It strikes one as very authoritative and thorough. And Martinez opens with "Magic is very hard to define". He lays it on the line and then proceeds to build a definition which works for Tolkien. Like so many other subjects, Martinez uses magic as an excuse to explore the rich history of Middle-earth. The essay could almost be called "magic through the ages". But by the time you finish reading the essay, it's like a light has just gone on for you. Suddenly, it all makes sense. There is a system to the magic after all. It is beautiful and rhythmic and natural, and not something Tolkien made up out of whimsy.

Buy Visualizing Middle-earth because you love Tolkien and Middle-earth. Ignore it only if you don't have that thirst for more which obviously drove Martinez to write these wonderful essays in the first place. Call them scholarly or fannish, they are among the best literature on Tolkien you'll find.

It was through the essays that appear in this book, along with the dozens that followed them that Michael has written for Suite101, that opened the door to me for a wonderful walk down the road of Tolkien fandom. I have always of course been a big fan of LOTR and have read it several times (okay three, but enough to know there is really nothing better out there) but it wasn't until I came across Michael's essays that I really took the plunge into Middle-earth.

That plunge was so deep and so fullfilling, it led me to volunteer my time to Michael to edit two further books of his following this one- Parma Endorian as an eBook (from Free-eBooks.net, their #1 download since Janaury 2002 and behind only Stephen King all time) and the soon to be published Understanding Middle-earth, which is a sequel to this book, only structured differently (and better, if I may say so myself) and twice as long! Keep your eyes peeled for it late summer 2003; if you at all like Visualizing Middle-earth, you'll love Understanding it even more!