I agree with Child, the style of writing reflected to mood of the story at that point and it was insightful of his to actively adapt it.
His origin of species stuff didn't bother me, actually. Another gripe I had was with the many inconclusive tales. I do think many things should be debated over and left to our imagination, but some specific things such as the fate of Celeborn, Elladan and Elrohir or more thorough accounts of action up in Mirkwood/Erebor during the War of the Ring would have been well-received. However I can accept that some things like the Entwives or detailing the many years of wandering by Aragorn and Gandalf are best left to the imagination. But when things are mentioned or started, I would like an ending. For example, the Blue wizards we never encountered so I didn't care too much about and wasn't overly bothered about what happened to them. But Radagast we knew of from The Hobbit and also met in LoTR, so I would have liked a conclusion on his story. I was never really satisfied with him simply becoming a crazy Doctor Doolittle bird-freak and nothing more.
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