I heard a synopsis of the book on BBC World News this morning. It's obviously a first novel (very different from LOTR) given the subject matter: familial murder and incest :/
But not different from the tale of Turin Turambar in "The Silmarillion" (as the article points out), or "The Children of Hurin" which is a longer version of the same story of Turin. The latter was published only recently in 2006.
What organization/corporation approves all of these releases? I'd imagine Tolkien's estate is extremely aggressive in preserving his legacy, especially if the new books are so different from what's made his novels loved by millions (billions?)
Actually J.R.R. Tolkien's son, Christopher Tolkien, is the executor of his estate and was editor who released both of those works [1]. But, yes, he wants to preserve his legacy, and unlike the recent films, he thinks the published books (even recent) do just that.
[1] http://www.worldcrunch.com/culture-society/my-father-039-s-q...