Michael Stanton, a noted expert on science fiction and fantasy literature, has written an indispensible new guide to Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings for readers and viewers alike. Stanton, who has been teaching Tolkien's epic for over 25 years at the University of Vermont, guides the reader through the thickets of characters and places Tolkien creates eschewing academic jargon and an overload of literary criticism to provide an understandable look at Tolkien's fantasyscape. He looks at characters, places, the various books of the epic, dreams, the notions of time and history, providing a rich and wonderful guide to Tolkien's world that no one will want to be without this year.