From CNN:

NEW YORK (AP) -- An unfinished tale by J.R.R. Tolkien has been edited by his son into a completed work and will be released next spring, the U.S. and British publishers announced Monday.

Christopher Tolkien has spent the past 30 years working on "The Children of Hurin," an epic tale his father began in 1918 and later abandoned. Excerpts of "The Children of Hurin," which includes the elves and dwarves of Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" and other works, have been published before.

"It has seemed to me for a long time that there was a good case for presenting my father's long version of the legend of the 'Children of Hurin' as an independent work, between its own covers," Christopher Tolkien said in a statement.

The new book will be published by Houghton Mifflin in the United States and HarperCollins in England.

So in the LOTR universe? Sounds intriguing.

Was Kevin J. Anderson unavailable?

Is this going to be a longer version of the Túrin Turambar story from The Silmarillion?

Yes, it's apparently going to be an extended version of that tale:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Children_of_Hurin

Just received a b&n e-mail about the book, along with a coupon for it.

From J.R.R. Tolkien, the world-famous author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, comes his first stand-alone book in thirty years, fully completed by his son, Christopher Tolkien, and illustrated by renowned artist Alan Lee. The Children of Húrin takes readers to an area of Middle-earth that was to be drowned before Hobbits ever appeared, at a time when the great enemies were still the fallen Vala, Morgoth, and Sauren. This is the epic tale of Húrin (the man who defied Morgoth's force of evil), his family's destiny, and his son Turin Turambar's travails through the lost world of Beleriand. Fans will be reunited with Elves and Men, Dragons and Dwarves, and Eagles and Orcs in this stirring tale.

It is on sale as of Today (17 Apr).

I got my copy in the mail from Amazon, and man is it a beaut! I love that the publisher got Alan Lee to provide some new illustrations - he truly knows how to perfectly capture Middle Earth in his works. I was surprised that the book was so small - it's barely bigger than a standard trade paperback, and not much thicker, either. I might also get the slipcased edition at some point to go along with my slipcased LOTR book.

Any sites have reviews yet?

http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/book....ap/index.html

I just received a mailer for this, too, and I didn't know anything about it.

Speaking of Tolkien - I'm going to have re-read The Silmarillion, it's been a few too many years.

Sounds good. I'm probably going to pick it up sometime this week.

I ordered it from Amazon, but won't have time to read it until at least July (cramming for Ph D comp in late June).

As I recall, the portions of it that appeared in the Silmarillion seemed to tell a pretty complete story. Then again, that book is so dense that it's all kind of a blur.

I am amazed that anyone can soldier through the Silmarillion once, no less twice or more.

Entertainment Weekly was really harsh and gave it a D - ouch!

The review was basically "I didn't like the writing style. D-"

Not completely, it also was critical that the gaps that exist in the story weren't filled in by the son or another writer...I guess it makes for a pretty difficult/confusing read.

Here's a link to the EW review:
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20035310,00.html

Another bad review:

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...ES05/704180408

Easton Press now has a nice collectors edition available: