3/5 Stars (%60/100)
I had a hard time rating this book. The cover is beautiful, the whole design of the book is brilliant and there are dozens of pretty illustrations together with maps, timelines, and so forth. Visually, the book is stunning and can be a great piece for Tolkien lovers. However, I have to admit that the things discussed in the book are not very great. Starting from Melkor and going all the way to the Third Age, Day compares the evil figures in Tolkien's works with figures from Greek and Norse mythology as well as Judeo-Christian images. The biggest problem I had with these is, as many others already pointed out, that there is not enough evidence or it feels a bit of stretch. For example, comparing Ungoliant with Kali the Hindu Goddess because they have eight legs/arms. Also, the comparison between Sauron and Solomon regarding the ring. There are many examples like this and it becomes repetitive after a while. However, it was still interesting to see certain connections and parallels despite the lack of evidence. I think the book would have been better if it only focused on the evil figures in Tolkien's works, like a summary or description of all the bad guys because the illustrations are beautiful and they are great to learn more about these somewhat complicated characters (honestly, that's what I thought the book was about before I've read it). Finally, even though there are some problems, I think rating the book extremely low is a bit harsh as I enjoyed reading it and looking at the pictures.
