Its awesome but the beginning is a bit slow and can turn you off.
The Hobbit is like Saving Private Ryan
LOTR is like WW2
Silmarillion is like the Bible “God said let there be light....all the way to the end of the hobbit.
Some familiar LOTR characters that appear in it include Sauron, Balrog, Elrond, Galadriel and Celeborn, Gil-Galad (The elf with the spear at the beginning of LOTR movie), Cirdan (The elf at the very end of LOTR movie standing in back as everyone got on the last ship.
“Olorin I was in my youth in the West that is forgotten...”