pickIt is unreasonable of me to rate this 5⭐, and yet this is where we find ourselves! 🧐
Of the 144 pages, about 35 contain Tolkien's words, but they are interesting in being post-apocalyptic science fiction! Set hundreds of years in the future following an environmental catastrophe, archeologists/philologists draw comically inaccurate conclusions about mid-20th century Oxford based on fragmentary documents relating to the consumerist worship of ⬇️
?Lovely Tolkien-painted endpapers at the front of the book, which continues on the back endpapers. It's a watercolour of Oxford and surrounding countryside, not produced specifically for "The Bovadium Fragments", but in keeping with it, according to the publisher's note. Also, the book ribbon is almost exactly the perfect colour green ? There are other illustrations by Tolkien, some not previously published, also with contemporary ⬇️
After the dark vibes from my last few books, my next is a bit of whimsy from under Professor Tolkien's bed, about town planning, urban sprawl, mechanisation, and the sacrifice of human living spaces to the Almighty Automobile 🙇♂️👑🚘👑🙇♂️
I've pre-ordered this newTolkien work, described as a satirical fantasy on town planning in Oxford, so I'm guessing no Dark Lords, elves or hobbits need apply!
The blurb says it was the last project Christopher Tolkien was involved with as editor and, given its stated fragmentary nature, it's bulked up to 144 pages with an essay by Richard Ovenden.
These are the leavings Tolkien fans can expect from the master's pen, and I'm not complaining 😊
Bovadium Fragments Hb: Together with 'The Origin of Bovadium' by Richard Ovenden O.B.E. | 
Given the story is written as a mock academic piece with fictitious footnotes, the editorial contributions of Tolkien Jr are not always easily distinguishable from the story, which actually nicely added to the meta-ness of it.
⬇️ 1mo
It's unlikely I'd otherwise give a 5⭐ review to a local history essay about urban development, and yet as it relates to Prof. T., here, as I said, do we find ourselves 🤨 1mo