The Fall of Numenor, edited by Brian Sibley

The Fall of Numenor: And Other Tales from the Second Age of Middle-Earth
by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Brian Sibley 
HarperCollins 2022

The Fall of Númenor is the latest volume in a series of posthumous releases containing the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien. Readers are most likely to be familiar to his bestselling books The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings, and the events in this new release take place a few thousand years prior to those books during an era known as the Second Age. There will be a few familiar names, such as Galadriel and Sauron, but the kingdom of Númenor is the feature here, which is an island where men and women have extended lifetimes and from whom the Dúnedain (the people of Tolkien's character Aragorn) are descended. The destruction and downfall of Númenor shows the subtle influence that Sauron possessed to sway the hearts of Men during the Second Age, preying on their corruptible nature, fear of death, and their ability to be led astray from their worship of the God of the land.

At some point, the vault of Tolkien will be exhausted of material to mine into new volumes. However, as Brian Sibley demonstrates in The Fall of Númenor, there’s still something more to be offered to his readers, in this case, collecting writing by Tolkien about the Second Age of Middle-earth. There is nothing new in here from the writings of Tolkien himself, and the light editorial hand from Sibley offers little new or revolutionary for a reader to glean along the way. Yet the compilation of information that was spread across multiple volumes into a single, sequential book provides a very worthwhile service for the reader, regardless of whether they are a long-time aficionado or a relative newcomer to his works.

The opening sections of the book do a great job of laying out Sibley’s intention with this book. He states that his goal is to “ to provide extracts . . . with as few editorial interventions as possible - that illustrate in the author’s own words the rich and tumultuous events of the Second Age”. That approach is fully on display across the entirety of this volume. By putting these fragments together into a comprehensive, chronological account, Sibley has made The Fall of Númenor feel like a historical account in the vein of something like The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle or Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People. The end result is both an engaging narrative spanning thousands of years and a timeline capturing the ebb and flow of an important nation and its various rulers during this era of Middle-earth.

This book is largely accessible to the reader, striking a blend between historical account and a few stronger, lengthier stories to bring it all together. As a whole, this will be a far easier book to pick up or recommend to a reader than The Silmarillion, which is notorious for being a challenging and - at times - a dry read for those expecting an experience more like The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings in style. The Fall of Númenor is a happy medium between those two categories, and small decisions such as pulling in excerpts from Tolkien’s letters makes it feel like the author is there, ready to provide a brief mention of the significance of the events unfolding.

While many of the names and events may be unfamiliar to those who are not heavily invested into everything Tolkien wrote, there are enough familiar ones to invite the reader along on the journey. This is further enhanced by the pair of Appendices concluding the book. The first offers a summary of the major events from the Third Age, likely familiar to most readers. The second Appendix offers another treat, taking an excerpt of Tolkien’s The Lost Road which gives a little more life to some of the characters and events the reader encountered throughout The Fall of Númenor and is presented in a style closer akin to The Lord of the Rings than anything else within this volume.

As a whole, The Fall of Númenor succeeds at offering something special for any reader, regardless of how familiar they are with Tolkien’s expanded legendarium. It makes this an easy volume to not only read, but this makes it an easy volume to recommend with enthusiasm as a possible next-read after someone finishes The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. This is possibly the best new Middle-earth Tolkien release in quite some time, and it will be interesting to see if Brian Sibley has any other projects in mind to tackle with his editorial clout.

David Wiley is the author Monster Huntress and A Merchant in Oria and Other Tales. He's a book reviewer living in Winterset, Iowa.