The Sellamillion

Cardboard Box of the Rings #2

by Adam Roberts

THE SELLAMILLION is NOT a parody of Tolkien's THE SILMARILLION. That would be pointless because although all Tolkien fans have a copy, only three of them have read past page 40. It is, however, a parody of all that Tolkien created as he worked on LORD OF THE RINGS. The history of the elderly days. Early missing drafts of LORD OF THE RINGS. A correspondence between the author and publisher on whether it should be a Bellybutton Stud of Doom rather than a Ring of Power. An experimental version of LOTR as if written by Dr Seuss. That sort of thing. It'll be funny. Possibly hilarious. The author's told us it will be. Promised even. And he did write THE SODDIT. And that was quite funny.

Genres: Fantasy, Humor, Comedy, High Fantasy, Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Novels

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Adam Roberts (born 1965) is an academic, critic and novelist. He also writes parodies under the pseudonyms of A.R.R.R. Roberts, A3R Roberts and Don Brine. He also blogs at The Valve, a group blog devoted to literature and cultural studies.

He has a degree in English from the University of Aberdeen and a PhD from Cambridge University on Robert Browning and the Classics. He teaches English literature and creative writing at Royal Holloway, University of London. Adam Roberts has been nominated twice for the Arthur C. Clarke Award: in 2001, for his debut novel, Salt, and in 2007, for Gradisil.

Reviews

[Kieran McAndrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let's face it: 'The Sellamillion' is a great book because it is unafraid to move away from its source material. Roberts' short parodic novel covers politics and broad farce as he gently mocks the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and his imitators.

[Helle · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had enough problems to get through The Silmarillion, which is parodied here in The Sellamillion. And although I appreciate the effort it must have taken to understand The Silmarillion well enough to write a proper parody, I didn’t particularly enjoy reading it. I guess you really have to like and understand the original to fully appreciate the parody

[[ J o ] · Rating 3 out of 5]

[Quick review from memory until I re-read and re-review at a later date:

Hmmm... I seem to have fond memories of this one though I'm quite scared about that. Do I want to re-read it?]

[Heather Young · Rating 3 out of 5]

Worth a chuckle

[Sandeep Vasudevan · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a parody, surprisingly deep at places. reminds of some Pratchett.

[Jellylorum · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 stars

[Matthew Harwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

A weird and fun addition. Continuing the proud series based off the ground breaking series this is an easy read that doesn’t really follow the original story tightly.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like with Bored Of The Rings and The Soddit, I haven't read the original, i.e. The Silmarillion in this case. But this nifty little book, The Sellamillion, came with the other two in a cassette that I bought at the Boekenfestijn in April this year. The Boekenfestijn is a monthly event at which books are sold - duh! - at very low prices. And each month the location changes between Flanders and The Netherlands.

Anyway, as Bored Of The Rings and The Soddit were very entertaining and witty parodies of the original books, I do have to say that The Sellamillion also managed to put a smile on my face, on several occasions.

The dry humour, the witty dialogues, the word plays, ... it's sheer fun! On top of that, you don't have to have read Tolkien's works to appreciate and like these parodies.

Of course, the parodies are much more compact, not only in size, but also in number of pages and the story/ies being told.

In short, recommended material if you're in need of a laugh or just want some fast entertainment.

One point of critique: I'm not that fond of the songs or poems that were added at the end, in the appendices. But the stories are very nice.

[Cait · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really funny - lots of bits I wanted to share with my husband.

Must have been quite a challenge to write - think it showed how well he understood the source material.

Must have quite a limited audience - people probably won't really get it unless they have read The Silmarilion and enjoy a parody.

Liked the names (e.g. Luthwoman) but took a while to catch what 'Tuoni Bleary' was from.

[Vader · Rating 2 out of 5]

5 star - Perfect
4 star - i would recommend
3 star - good
2 star - struggled to complete
1 star - could not finish

[Lynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

very giggly