Olga Yolgina

2nd read, March 2024.
Upgraded to 4 stars. Listening with actual text in front of me made all the difference. So many things just went over my head the first time.

All the characters that were just a mess for me when I listened the first time appeared very well-rounded and distinctive this time. I was particularly touched by Warden and his story.

The relationship between Gideon and Harrow turns out to be much deeper than I thought. The ending makes sense now and is very sad. I still have some questions about Gideon unanswered and hope to get some information about her in the second book.
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2.5 rounded to 3 because of how the book ends. The last few chapters made it not feel like I wasted my time on the book. I shouldn't have felt bored by such a book, but somehow most of the time I did. I muddled through it rather than immersed and enjoyed, like it usually happens.

Loved it.
I thoroughly enjoyed these legends and the way they are told (most of that was due to Martin Shaw's great narration, I think).
The only thing left unanswered - the origins of Hobbits. The creation of Elves, Dwarves and Men was described and explained and Hobbit were just hinted at in the last part of the book. I was very curious to find about Hobbots' orgins, as (as far as I remember) it's not explained in the later books.
I'm glad I finally got to reading The Silmarillion (I was going to for quite a while) and I'm going to continue to The Hobbit and LOTR now :)