I wasn’t surprised by it being a paperback: looks just like the other paperbacks recently.

William Morrow updated their Fall 2024 plan in edelweiss, replaced "a luxurious, high-end hardcover boxed set of The Lord of the Rings titles" with "a deluxe slipcased illustrated edition of The Hobbit"

That would be the US slipcased edition of The Hobbit ‘illustrated by the author’ edition: they get those in slipcased format a year after the UK does

scarletsorcerer wrote:

That would be the US slipcased edition of The Hobbit ‘illustrated by the author’ edition: they get those in slipcased format a year after the UK does

That’s my guess as well. Although I’d have loved to see what another high-end LOTR set would look like, frankly I’m thankful I’ll be able to save the money for other Tolkien books.

Would this be the first US release of these?

Huan wrote:

Would this be the first US release of these?

Yes, only UK until these.

I must say, I’m disappointed with these.

Thought they were going to be a remake of the hobbit and lotr cloth hardback set. They have same design and the addition of silmarillion is nice.

However, they are some kinda textured fo-plastic instead of cloth, and they have glued bindings instead of sewn.

Booo

Old Man Willow wrote:

I must say, I’m disappointed with these.

I think it is fair to let them be released first, before deciding if you like them or not.

They are out, a friend has it. Maybe just not where you’re at?