OT - New Edition of LoTR with Tolkien illustrations

To be published this fall. It might interest me, depending on overall quality of the books themselves.

https://apnews.com/article/oxford-jrr-tolkien-us-news-england-98d702f1f5589297c7...

This is very exciting. I've been searching for a the perfect LOTR copy for years (a good combo of binding, paper quality, and art). Maybe this will be the one.

I really like Tolkien's buildings and landscapes. Hope the book is good quality.

Sumptuous slipcased edition of Tolkien’s classic epic tale of adventure, fully illustrated in colour for the first time by the author himself. Limited to a worldwide first printing of just 5,000 copies, this deluxe volume is quarterbound in leather and includes many special features unique to this edition.

Do I need another copy of LOTR? yes I suppose I do. I've placed my pre-order on amazon.

>4 JuliusC: would you mind sharing the Amazon link?

>4 JuliusC: I have look all over the US Amazon site and could not locate it.

>5 RRCBS:
>6 Forthwith:
ISBN: 978-0008471293
*cheaper to order through Amazon Canada than UK

>6 Forthwith: Often these are not available in the U.S. due to idiotic rights agreements. Like if we had to eat crappy parmesan out of a green can because Kraft paid politicians enough to not allow parmesano reggiano into the country. They want their global markets but they want to eat them too.

In other words, it's good to have a book friend across the pond.

Yeah, if I try to order this on Amazon.ca I'm told it cannot be sold to my address in the States.

“A world wide first printing of just 5,000 copies”

Doesn’t preclude further printings, so I expect this to be available in 10 years, just like the other ‘deluxe limited’ editions.

>10 Uppernorwood: Of course there will be further printings, they will milk this till the cows are dry. Could be a case where the first printing is from a European bindery and the re-prints will be from China.

There is also a standard hardback edition
ISBN: 978-0008471286

>1 chrisrsprague: >4 JuliusC: Thanks for the information. There was also an article about this edition in today's Guardian here. It's intriguing that the Canadian price ($150) is nominally the same as the British price (£150) when £1 = C$1.73. Plenty of room for arbitrage there for anyone running a CAD-UK book export business :)

>12 cronshaw: I noticed that as well and thought it must by a mistake. Oh well if you’re Canadian take advantage of Amazon’s pre- order guarantee as it’ll be sure to go up.

>13 Juniper_tree: The Amazon.co.uk price has just dropped to £108, now presented as a discount of 28% from the 'RRP' of £150.

Neither are available in Germany at the moment. The books look beautiful. I have been searching for the perfect Lord of the Rings for years. Only own a paperback as of now, just because I never found any that was truly beautiful as well as within my price range. The FS ones are not quite right in my opinion.

I am gonna have to ask some friends who have folks in the UK to accept delivery. Can't miss out on this one. Have waited long enough.

Thank you so much, OP, for sharing this here! Really appreciate it.

>15 sekhmet0108: Totally agree, I will be looking into this one as well if it becomes available in the states. The FS ones are a strange anomaly for me. I love FS and I love LotR but the two together in this case, do no make a good pair.

>14 cronshaw:, so what you’re saying is that since I pre ordered yesterday I can now buy a £42 FS book, without actually spending any money, right?

>18 cronshaw: If you stand on your head and look at it sideways, absolutely :)

I'm not sure if there are shipping restrictions but Book Depository ships worldwide: https://www.bookdepository.com/The-Lord-of-the-Rings-J-R-R-Tolkien/9780008471293
Their prices fluctuates though so it's worth checking their site every so often.
Also note that the Canadian market usually receives our share a month or 2 late. So if you absolutely cannot wait, it's best to order through Amazon UK or Book Depository which has a released date of October 14 where as the Canadian Amazon has it for December 7.

Sold out at Amazon UK. I am very disappointed.

>19 JuliusC: I just preordered from Book Depository for shipment to the US with no problem (plus the book was discounted 10% and free shipping)

>20 Mr.Fox:

Currently it isn't sold out on amazon UK. The problem is that lately they show all pre-orders as out of stock to non UK-buyers, even when they're actually available - as long as you're from the UK. For things that sell out before the release, the practical consequence is that buyers from outside the UK can't buy that product at all. You can see if the item in question is really out of stock or just blocked for sale to 'foreigners' by using a proxy with a UK server.

Does anyone know if this will be sewn or just a glued hardback with a fancy cover?

I've never bought one of Harper Collins' Tolkien editions.

do you thin this is worth buying...will it rise in value? 5000 copies is quite alot

>24 taylorthomasuk: If we knew the answer the that question, we'd be squinting our eyes at it from our yacht, funded by the fortune we made predicting stock prices; instead we're at our desk. Most of us anyway.

Are you planning to resell it for a profit later on?

>25 U_238: well...no...but i just wandered about everyone elses thoughts...like the harry potter books

has now been reduced to £108 on amazon.co.uk

>22 SF-72: its currenttly on sale for £108 on amazon uk

>28 taylorthomasuk:

Depending on where you are, yes. As I wrote, pre-orders are blocked to my country (and probably the whole of the EU, who knows where else) and are shown as out of stock if you find a direct link. If you just search for an item on their website, it doesn't show up at all. That includes this book. That's amazon's way of preventing people from outside the UK from making pre-orders. Don't ask my why, it's a mystery to me. They started that with Brexit.

>19 JuliusC: Thanks for the tip! I'm US-based and just ordered with no problems. Had really been wondering how I was going to get my grubby paws on this, too! lol

Won't show me to ship from Amazon ca to au.
Not currently showing on au website.

>24 taylorthomasuk: "do you thin this is worth buying...will it rise in value? 5000 copies is quite alot"

I'm afraid I agree with >10 Uppernorwood: and >11 JuliusC:. The Amazon website does not refer to this as a Limited Edition of 5,000. It merely states that it is "limited to a worldwide FIRST PRINTING of just 5,000 copies" (my capitalisation). Having said that, I placed my order this morning.

>23 Auberon: I would assume it is as the deluxe Harper Collins Tolkien editions, which I have a few are sewn.

>22 SF-72: Thank you so much for the explanation! I appreciate it.

>33 assemblyman: "I would assume it is as the deluxe Harper Collins Tolkien editions"

Or these recent illustrated deluxe editions:

https://www.tolkien.co.uk/products/unfinished-tales-illustrated-deluxe-slipcased...

https://www.tolkien.co.uk/products/the-silmarillion-illustrated-deluxe-edition-9...

>28 taylorthomasuk: "It's currently on sale for £108 on amazon uk."

Well, it's back to £150 now!

>36 boldface: YESW..I SAW THAT...strange lol

>29 SF-72: I also saw that Amazon won't send to Germany. Waterstones and Bookdepository have no problem doing that.

The quarter leather 'special deluxe' edition is also available to order on-line at Blackwells, currently cheaper than Amazon.co.uk. and with the additional satisfaction that unlike Amazon, Blackwells doesn't engage in egregious tax avoidance.

It looks lovely. I have the deluxe 2004 edition as my only copy now since my paperbacks got read to death. It seems this edition will have the same content with additional Tolkien illustrations. I don’t know if that is enough to entice me content wise but I do love his illustrations in the Hobbit deluxe edition which I found lovely.

>35 boldface: I didn’t even know about these. More lovely editions. I have the deluxe editions for the Lord of the Rings, Hobbit, Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales to match what old paperbacks I had read to death and left it at that as it was enough for me content wise. But there seems to be always a new bright and shiny new one released said to improve on the previous one.

Maybe I am in the minority, but I actually prefer the current Folio Society edition. A single volume edition like this will mean that either 1) the text block is huge and unwieldy, 2) the text is tiny and hard to read, 3) the paper is super thin and see-through, or 4) all of the above. A leather binding is welcome, but is this genuine leather or bonded leather? I suspect the latter. Granted, Tolkien illustrations are tempting, but I actually like the Ingahild Grathmer (aka Queen Margrethe II of Denmark) illustrations—they have a woodblock-like quality that feels appropriate. Now granted, if a true fine press version were to appear, say published by Arion Press or even Thornwillow Press, I would be first in line, but for this one at least, I’m quite happy with my Folio Society edition.

>42 mnmcdwl: I agree. I find that even when well made, giant tomes often suffer in font size, paper thinness, gravity slant, etc.

I have the previously released Harper individual volume hardcovers with Alan Lee art, and while they are solid and well bound, the paper has that kind of smooth semi gloss that many art books have, which doesn’t quite feel right for a novel to me. Not sure what the paper is for this new one but it’s hard to get such details for trade pubs without seeing them in person and I don’t really trust a big conglomerate to not cut production corners where possible (which to be fair most of their customers would probably prefer as well if doing so resulted in a cheaper book that looked the same spine out on the shelf).

The edge detailing is attractive though.

>41 assemblyman: "But there seems to be always a new bright and shiny new one released said to improve on the previous one."

Yes, In acquiring Unwin Hyman, Harper Collins made a very smart move. Tolkien is basically a licence to print money.

It looks beautiful! I'll resist adding to my heaps and bins though.

This edition is currently available for pre-order on wordery.co.uk for £99, cheaper than Amazon's (now out-of-stock) or The Book Depository's offering for anyone interested.

https://wordery.com/the-lord-of-the-rings-j-r-r-tolkien-9780008471293?cTrk=MTg5M...

P.S. They advertise free worldwide delivery with every order!

>46 cronshaw: "Sorry, this is currently unavailable."

>47 chrisrsprague: It's still available when I click the link, and "14 people are looking at this now". Perhaps its sale is restricted to certain regions :(

>48 cronshaw:

Yup, I confirm I can see it (also UK).

Not available for me/in the U.S.

>46 cronshaw: They also currently have a 10% off promo on (& if you use certain click-through sites you could get an extra 10% cashback on top of that)

>51 antinous_in_london: That's helpful thanks, the code BDAY10 works a treat! it brings the UK price in pounds almost within reach of the original price in Canadian dollars (C$150).

>52 cronshaw: A bit cheaper - with the cashback i got it for £79.99 with free shipping, which works out at around C$138. Sometimes the codes don't work on pre-orders but that code seems to work on everything.

I do not understand why this seems to be literally impossible to obtain if you live in the US.

US residents can get it thru Book Depository.

I'm on the fence. I'm on the lookout for a good LOTR edition, but passing on the current Folio offering. Book Depository shows it at $184 for me (in the US). Can I expect the quality to be comparable to a FS printing? I have no experience with higher end printings by the big publishers.

>56 simbae: Coupon Code 'SEPT10' knocks off $18.45. It is tempting. I am however curious about quality as well. For now, and for months now, I have pre-ordered the standard version on Amazon for a mere $47.48. I can still cancel that however, as it's still a pre-order. Hmm....

>57 chrisrsprague: I'm right there with you and thanks for the code! I figured I could always find the regular illustrated edition at any time in the future, but it could be hard getting this special edition at least for some time. I'll continue to sit on this fence for now since the price is a bit steep (I wouldn't hesitate if this was a FS sale).

I cannot find it on the Cdn amazon site

>59 Atheistic: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/0008471290

I ordered LOTR some weeks ago for a US delivery through Book Depository and the order was accepted and payment processed but that is the last that I have heard.

>42 mnmcdwl: I'm with you - 1,248 pages squeezed into one 6x9 inch volume doesn't give me confidence in the production quality of the innards, although the exterior looks nice.

60 Duonkha - gracias!!
It is $150 cdn no longer. $197 now

>61 Forthwith:
According to the listing on the Book Depository site it will be available to ship 21 days from today, today being 9-23-21.

>62 AMindForeverVoyaging: Think Bible paper or Library of America main series volumes paper - 1,284 pages in an inch is just fine if you have the correct paper. Although Blackwells gives Spine width: 82mm.

>64 Crypto-Willobie: Now they show a delay in the publishing date to Oct. 14.

>66 Forthwith:
That's the same as 21 days from 9-23.

Someone on reddit received it and posted a few pictures

https://www.reddit.com/r/tolkienbooks/comments/q21chn/ok_everyone_got_some_more_...

My copy arrived this afternoon. I think it's pretty clearly the best copy of LotR I've ever held. Lots of attention to extra detail. Really appreciate the maps that are pull out instead of fold out. But genuinely enjoy everything about it.

>69 Jason461: Are the pages of good quality ? Is it a ‘‘readable’’ copy ? Mine should be delivered in December.

Exactly what I want to know. I saw a video unboxing of the Limited version (YouTube) and the one volume readability is keeping me on the fence!

>70 Nerevarine:
>71 simbae:

Some thoughts on the new edition (HarperCollins, UK).

The standard version paper looks to me a tad whiter than the deluxe, but the feel and bleed-through properties are much the same in both. Surprisingly, the paper is very little thinner than in the slipcased 3-volume hardback. You can see the shadow of print through it but it's not excessive - in fact to my eye it's slightly better in this regard than in the 3-volume version. I don't find any readabilty problems on that score.

The deal breaker is more likely to be the weight. Both standard and deluxe versions of the new edition (i.e. out of their boxes/slipcases, etc. and in the hand for reading) each weigh about 1.6 Kg (3 lb 8 oz).

Despite the premium prices, these books, though attractive enough, are not up to FS standards. For example, the red leather on the spine of the deluxe edition has no smell and is probably bonded. However, the two-colour (black with red page numbers, titles, etc.) printing is a nice feature and they are certainly towards the higher end of what you expect from HarperCollins.

Despite the criticisms above, I don't regret buying them!

>70 Nerevarine:

It's definitely heavy. The paper quality is as good as you could hope for from a single edition that's still readable. I got the deluxe edition and the paper has a slight patina. The pages are thin, but they have to be. I'll be reading it again from this edition.

In terms of overall quality of materials, the Folio editions (we have them) are maybe slightly better, but this edition wins (for me) on design and execution. The pages from the book of Mazarbul and Aragorn's letter to Sam are very nice inclusions that come separate (included in the package, but not physically attached to the book). It's an incredibly fun edition.

If I could make one change it would be to have the illustrations on the gloss paper Folio typically uses, but that's a minor quibble.

>73 Jason461: >72 boldface:

Thanks a lot for the detailed replies, it’s appreciated!

>69 Jason461: I'm pleased with my copy, as well. Was very glad to be able to get ahold of this since I'm in the US. I only started collecting again about 2 years ago after a long hiatus (and after losing a large collection in a natural disaster some years back), and this solved my "problem" about what Tolkien edition to get. I don't care for the Folio editions. I think the EP editions are nice enough, but I used to own those and was not keen enough on them to repurchase. So, having this LOTR edition in hand, I think I'm going to purchase a deluxe Hobbit to (sort of) match the LOTR. :)

>75 whytewolf1: I'm us, too and was surprised ow fast mine came.

There was a Hobbit a few years ago with illustration by Jemima Catlin that I think is perfect. There was a quite nice edition of that one that I've never gotten hold of, but I think it would be worth it.

>76 Jason461: I have the nice edition of the Caitlin illustrated hobbit and it’s just beautiful. Got my deluxe copy of LOTR here in the states a couple of days ago and I’m very happy with it. I admit I also ordered the US. standard edition because I was afraid of messing up the various maps and inserts but that doesn’t release until next week.

>76 Jason461: >77 yolana: Thanks for the recommendation. I'll check it out. :)

Amazon UK finally shipped my copy. I’m nervously waiting to see how much damage it will receive during its journey to California.

>79 Mr.Fox: The good news is that the book was issued inside an illustrated storage/shipping box (nothing really meant to be kept) that offers it pretty good protection, so it's essentially shipped double-boxed. Mine arrived in prefect shape.

>80 whytewolf1: Thanks for letting me know—that is so good to hear! I think I can relax a little bit. I am very excited to receive my copy.

Just catching up on a few threads after a brief hiatus abroad.

Being a Tolkien fanatic and collector I ordered both the standard and De Luxe editions. I have to say I far prefer then standard over the De Luxe. On the De Luxe I find the red leather a bit bright. The cover feels like it will mark easily. More egregious is the fact that some of the pages are whiter than others which is inexcusable in an edition marketed and priced as a de luxe one. On the standard, I'm not over keen on the Ring Tengwar printed on the page edges - a bit of a gimmick. But, overall, a very nice edition which does not suffer from the defects of the de luxe.

The HarperCollins LOTR single-volume illustrated de luxe slipcased edition 2021 is still available for £76.85 on Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Lord-of-the-Rings/dp/0008471290

>83 mr.philistine: For US buyers, I just ordered it last night from Book Depository where it's currently listed for $123.58, alongside pre-ordering the forthcoming edition of The Silmarillion.

https://www.bookdepository.com/Lord-Rings-J-R-R-Tolkien/9780008471293

https://www.bookdepository.com/Silmarillion-J-R-R-Tolkien/9780008537906

>84 Shadekeep: Its continued availability for a good bit less than the pre-release price just goes to show I shouldn't have trusted the "limited" aspect of its marketing, and I now know that I vastly overpaid for it upon (pre) release (by about $45!).

I guess the scalpers took a bath on this, so at least that part makes me feel better about the whole thing.

>85 chrisrsprague: Here is an interesting video from a regular FS vlogger and his thoughts on HarperCollins...
Why I Sold My J.R.R. Tolkien Collection

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