The war of the jewels Book

I'm very torn with giving stars to this book. If I'd rate only the content by J.R.R. Tolkien and the work Christopher has done, his passion and his patience, I would give 5 stars without even thinking about it. But this book was difficult to read. First of all there are many cross-references which can be best understood while having the Silmarillion and the Unfinished Tales next to you. Reading it this way would acquire a hell lot of time and interrupt the reading at every page. I was simply not willing to do that. I believe if you are a real fanatic and know the history of the elves and all their sub-branches plus the first Men by heart AND preferably read the 12-volume series in order of their publishing, you might get much more out of this book and actually understand everything. I love Tolkien, I have read 8 of his books or so, but I'm not one to remember everything easily. I just can't, and that's why this book was tough to get through. I still read everything and am glad I did, but I sadly can only give three stars due to the lack of joy in reading it. It was a great joy to get to know new things, to learn more about Tolkien's world and his thoughts etc., but all around those moments were countless pages with notes, explanations, footnotes etc. that just frustrated me and were tiring to get through.