MercatorNet reviews The Children of Húrin:

For me, Húrin has served the purpose which Christopher Tolkien explains in the preface: that a reader only casually acquainted with the earlier Ages of Middle Earth might become more interested in the people and drama which filled that world. I still can't remember which of the families of Elves is which (and I'm not helped here by the family trees at the back of Hurin which revealed what I've always suspected: that all their names begin with "F"). But I'm drawn in by a story which touches even peripherally on each of the major players in the First Age of Middle Earth. And I'm ready to go back again to the stories of the earlier Ages of Tolkien's world to discover some of the grandeur, to witness some of the "many defeats and many fruitless victories" which Elrond speaks of.