Have those illustrations ever been included elsewhere?
I said I wouldn't buy more copies of books I already have but they might get me with this one if they have illustrations which have never been printed before.
' I doubt very much if anything will be new. And to be frank, I am waiting on reviews for this next volume as The lord of the Rings illustrations are absolute garbage.
That's sad to hear. I was about to start collecting these new "illustrated by the author" hardbacks, but if the illustrations are bad then it makes no sense to do that.
I am sure others here will argue the other way on this and say the images are fine. Each of us has different ideas about what is good quality after all. But my thinking is that this was the first time that these images were presented with Tolkien's texts, they should have been on photographic paper, instead they are on awful quality paper and in many cases text shows through on the side of images. And for my likes that is very, very poor from HarperCollins. When people ask me for the best image quality of Tolkien's own artwork and my answer is to buy reference books (Art of the Hobbit, Art of Rings etc) over a world first book, the publisher should be ashamed of themselves.
I think the problem that have is that they want to put illustrations in the book without thought to where they can fit if printed on different paper. The last time they did a book properly with photographic paper only for the illustrations (thus the positioning being dictated by the construction of the book as much as the art), was the 1992 Illustrated LoTR. Since then they have used paper for the text that is glossy or made everything matte. Honestly, they need to design the books so they can work properly.
Additional information on the Deluxe from Amazon, thanks to zionius
This deluxe slipcased edition contains the complete text, which is printed in two colours and features, for the very first time, more than 50 colour paintings, illustrations and designs drawn by J.R.R. Tolkien himself as he composed this epic work.
Unique to this edition are two poster-size, fold-out maps revealing all the detail of Beleriand as the tales grew, an illustrated booklet featuring ‘A Brief Account of The Silmarillion and its Making’ by Christopher Tolkien, and a printed art card reproducing ‘Taniquetil’.
It is additionally quarterbound in blue leather, with raised ribs on the spine, stamped in three foils on black cloth boards, and housed in a custom-built clothbound slipcase. The pages are edged in silver and include a ribbon marker.
An illustrated booklet featuring ‘A Brief Account of The Silmarillion and its Making’ by Christopher Tolkien
I assume this is the text from The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien: A Brief Account of the Book and its Making published after The Silmarillion, republished in Mallorn 14 (1980) and that can be read at the Tolkien Estate website.
A nice touch I think. I have skipped most of the deluxe but I will be in for this one.
An illustrated booklet featuring ‘A Brief Account of The Silmarillion and its Making’ by Christopher Tolkien
I assume this is the text from The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien: A Brief Account of the Book and its Making published after The Silmarillion, republished in Mallorn 14 (1980) and that can be read at the Tolkien Estate website.
A nice touch I think. I have skipped most of the deluxe but I will be in for this one.
The original booklet can be found with enough time and digging, but I'm glad they are including this as now newer fans or people who haven't known about it will be able to read it.
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