Honestly, anyone who is any doubt about how poor the quality is on this should go to their shelf and pull out Fall of Gondolin and compare to Fall of Numenor. They are literally at opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of quality. I wasn't a fan of colour choice for FoG, but other than that, it is a well-made book with quality paper and printing (and appreciably better text pages than trade).

Absolutely agree with that. Since 2 years, they've increased the quality of text blocks for the trade editions, but consequently decreased the quality of the deluxes siblings.
Today, deluxes are really, as you said Stu, text blocks of the trade in a *so-called* deluxe binding. Even the binding of FoN deluxe is not as good as the *faux leather* (with imitated leather texture) used in the previous deluxe editions.
Now this is just paper (as they did for Sir Gawain and the green Knight). On this matter, we can say that all deluxe printed by Rotolito use non textured paper, while the last one printed by LEGO (NoME, published between SG&tGN and FoN) was still having textured paper.
And even this is not the topic here, those topics are tied : using text blocks in a deluxe binding was also the case for the previous 3 illustrated deluxe editions from the last 2 years. And this is also the case for this year's deluxe Silmarillion illustrated by the author. Apart fromthe silver edging, this is the same text block than the trade. And we haven't start to talk about spine silver rubbing here for this edition. It seems to affect all copies since it is a chemical issue with the silver pigments which don't stick on the leather correctly. Mine was fine 2 days ago, then I have handed the book a little bit, and just noticed today some rubbing on the silver gilt on the spine.... Just see what kind of jokes people are sharing on FB, with "ilmarillion" or "Silmarillio".... Awful !

Yeah, the silver sigil was already rubbing on my Silmarillion when it arrived a couple of days ago. It isn't quite bad enough to return, but I suspect if I handled the book to any great extent, it would come off. I'm playing it by ear as to whether that goes back (depending on reports from the internet of how bad they get with any use).

And despite quality issues we still continue to buy them all.

I can agree with most of the sentiments here regarding the color plates. I don't have the HC trade yet as it's currently at US customs, but I do have the WM trade and HC deluxe. There is a really obvious red tent to the images, as compared to say my LEGO FOG/B&L/COH.

HC is still using the wrong type paper for the image reproductions, should be a more glossy more bright stock.

It sounds like if you get a U.S. trade printed and bound in China, it’s actually superior to the Rotolitos.

It sounds like if you get a U.S. trade printed and bound in China, it’s actually superior to the Rotolitos.

I don't think Rotolito is up to the standard of (good) Chinese printing, tbh; They seem to be European equivalent of low-end Chinese printers. I do support the use of a European printer, though. I assume they must be much cheaper than LEGO.

I must admit, I'm really enjoying the book itself (not its physical manifestation, but the content). Brian seems to have done a great job with this.

I'm personally feeling that if HC can't do a better job with printed illustrations, then the the ebook is likely the way to go in the future (the illustrations won't be any worse, but greater practicality for reading).

Stu wrote:

I must admit, I'm really enjoying the book itself (not its physical manifestation, but the content). Brian seems to have done a great job with this.

I completely agree…Brian did a wonderful edit.

The Washington Post agrees as well. They characterize Brian's editing as "nimble"

For Tolkien Fans, two books add rich new layers to the series.

Which translated language editions currently exist for this book? I've so far only seen a German one (Klett-Cotta, ISBN 3608987002). Are there any others?