PositiveTorChristopher Tolkien is forthcoming about this in his Preface; the book ‘does not offer a single page of original and unpublished’ text of his father’s. Which is certainly a bummer. But what the new book does do is hold up a big, old-timey, Sherlock–style magnifying glass to the story and its evolution. Like almost everything published posthumously under the Tolkien name, it is comprised of J.R.R.’s unfinished scrawlings tied up and edited into a cohesive narrative by his son … There’s also a wonderful little chapter Christopher Tolkien provides after the Preface called ‘Notes on the Elder Days,’ and it helps set the stage for those who don’t already know how this story connects to LotR or what’s going on in the First Age up until this point.
