Dungeon wrote:

wow looking at it more... the design seems to be an amalgam of all 3 deluxe slipcase series...

And the latest Alan Lee limited Folio Society deluxe edition.

Im really excited for this release, and can’t wait for HC to upload more pictures (especially since it’s in my birth month, Happy Birthday to me!).

I’ve wondered for some time about this set. I’m thinking it’s a more affordable version of the deluxe Folio Society set, that came out a year or so ago. Clearly not the same, but similar. Time will tell of course.

I planned to pass on this one. Too much money for a mass-produced set that I absolutely expect to have tycical Harper Collins quality. 50% off made it ok though.

With your remarks about ‘typical HarperCollins quality’ does that mean that you’ve essentially stopped getting new Tolkien books?

If you’re not happy about their quality, why continue to get them?

scarletsorcerer wrote:

With your remarks about ‘typical HarperCollins quality’ does that mean that you’ve essentially stopped getting new Tolkien books?

If you’re not happy about their quality, why continue to get them?

I won't speak for northman but his comment makes very clear that he was not happy to purchase at the retail but 50% off that put it in the price range he deemed acceptable for what he expects to recieve. It seemed pretty obvious to me that he had judged a price he was happy with, and HC met that price, thus he has ordered.

That makes sense, though I admit the remark about the quality caught my attention.

Anyway, 50% off is great! Since that this isn’t a standard hardcover, here’s hoping the parts that make it deluxe will be nice ☺️

scarletsorcerer wrote:

That makes sense, though I admit the remark about the quality caught my attention.

Anyway, 50% off is great! Since that this isn’t a standard hardcover, here’s hoping the parts that make it deluxe will be nice ☺️

I am not a collector, so my standards for a book are 'will I enjoy it for a while'? And as such I also ordered the box at a price which I deem to be the right price. I have bought all of the matte dj series so far and will continue to, but at some point they will become work horse copies because that is the nature of my Tolkien habit. I write in my books, I add pages, I mostly leave them without a dj once I am using them for notes. But, the group here are mostly collecting, and that means they look at different criteria to what I will. Judging what one expects from HarperCollins quality verses the price is as important as any other factor when collecting these books. If one goes into this book expecting it to be of the Folio quality, well, they will be in for a disappointment.

Precisely it: this is indeed a collection forum, and as such different criteria apply to different peoples’ tastes.


Nevertheless, they produce ordinary hardcovers: dustjackets, the whole bit. Those should be measured against the publisher’s non-Tolkien titles, as well as how hardcovers are being made in the 2020s: how do they compare against the Dune books? Harry Potter? The latest Ken Follett?

Taking issue with a more prestigious release (a deluxe slipcased edition) is more…..er, validated, as it’s SUPPOSED to be a nicer format.

Though Tolkien is many’s favourite writer / author, there’s a stigma that every edition should be top-notch BECAUSE it’s Tolkien. Though the publisher merely sees it: ‘this is a regular hardcover 🤷‍♂️. There’s nothing special about this tier’

scarletsorcerer wrote:

With your remarks about ‘typical HarperCollins quality’ does that mean that you’ve essentially stopped getting new Tolkien books?

If you’re not happy about their quality, why continue to get them?

I think that is a question I cant really relate to...in other words for me its not a binary question at all since i collect tolkien books. A more lengthy answer: they made this set available for 50% of the first indicated price so I decided to get this set because it came within a range of price and design i find ok. The upcoming poems is a must have for me since my main focus of collecting is getting first printings (or as early printings as possible) of every text tolkien worked on so price and quality are of minor concern. The new 'signature paperbacks' series I dont collect at all since I dont like the design and therefor it has no collectability for me and i have 200 things I would rather prioritize using money on from my collecting budget. The point being that since for me books have various degrees of collectability depending on content, rarity, scarcity, design, price, quality etc I dont find it meaningful to 'get all new editions' or 'get no new editions'.

As for quality I would say though there is no 'stigma' that i see that tolkien publications need to be of high quality. At least not among collectors since quite many of us on the contrary expect rather poor quality. I dont think Harper Collins has an especially bad 'tolkien quality' either (or that Harper Collins is worse than most other publishers), I just figured such a qualification was unnecessary to make - I dont collect Frank Herbert.

Ah that makes sense 😀

Regardless if you got it for 50% off or paid full price, I hope it’ll be a nice product