Rating: Summary: Good quality, great book! Review: I think you'll love it. Paper quality is high, and the layout comes elegant and clean. Also the hardcover quality is pretty good. I was afraid because of other reviews talking about poor (fading) printing, but, at least in my copy, it is definitely not true, the printing is perfect throughout the book. Just feeling lack of a bookmark, it would have been a great touch, unfortunately missing. And about the story... you know indeed. :)
Rating: Summary: A Beautiful Edition Review: A worthy production of a classic trilogy. No mention of the content is needed, as anyone looking to buy this should be well aware of the story already. There is a subtle, psychological fluidity that is offered by this edition, as the story is not quite as segmented in the reader's mind by having only one bound volume as opposed to three. There is alas, only one disadvantage: The book itself is so admirable that I find myself in constant paranoia of soiling it's pages with dirty fingers, or heaven forbid should a sneeze catch me at the wrong moment. The same with creating a crease along the binding as one lays it open. Furthermore, the large folded map in the back may be subject to tear if it is handled often. It's probably worth the [money] or so to pick up a set of cheap paperback editions to do the actual reading. You must forgive my paranoia, and probably many a book collector would say that I have only stated the obvious, and shouldn't even think of using this edition for reading purposes. Still, the reading of it is like good wine in a fancier bottle.
Rating: Summary: The BEST book you will ever read!! Review: This may be the best book you will ever read. If you are a fan of fantasy, read it. If you aren't, read it anyway! Tolkien's masterpiece draws you into a world all its own, and once you enter Middle-Earth, you won't want to leave. You come into a world of Elves and Dwarves, Men, Hobbits, and Orcs, and their conflicts and struggles become your own. This work is so amazing and enchanting that you will finish it and want to read it all over again. And again. And again...you will never grow tired of this classic that will outlast the generations. I know I won't.
Rating: Summary: Incredible story, beautiful edition Review: I'm not going to spend too much time raving about the story, because I could go on all day about how much I love it, and everyone already knows how great it is anyway. An epic tale of good versus evil, replete with amazing beauty and disgusting horror. Imminently readable, with highly sympathetic characters the reader will quickly grow to love. I wanted to take a moment to address the collector's edition specifically, [....] when I received the book, I was delighted. It is true that the cover is not real leather; if that is your sole reason for buying this book, then skip it of course. But it is a beautiful edition. The chapter titles and page numbers at the top and bottom of the pages are printed in red ink, which sets them off from the black ink of the text. The inside covers (front and back) are a red and black marbled design on thick sturdy paper. The large fold-out map fit perfectly within the last few pages, and again is printed in black and red ink, making it easy to distinguish topographical features in black from place names and labels in red. The cover is embossed with beautiful runish drawings in shiny gold, blue and green. [...]. The edition is well worth the purchase price; I can't recommend it highly enough.
Rating: Summary: The Lord of the Rings rules! Review: I just wanted to say that I haven't bought this book yet, but I am getting it by this Wednesday. I looked at an open copy of this at the book shop, and I thought it was great. I really like the cover and the spine. It's so artistic and creative. I think whoever made this book (I think it was Houghton Miffflin), I think they are pretty smart to make it this way. I can't wait to get it, soon. I highly recommend it because I thought "The Hobbit" was a good book and I thought "The Fellowship of the Ring" the movie, was good, too. So if you like Fantasy, I highly recommend this trilogy, especially because it is in one big book and it's a collector's item. It can also be a good thing to read in class incase you get bored and have nothing to do.
Rating: Summary: Good book, but a little bit too expensive Review: I don't want to say something about the content of the book here, because I think everybody knows it. I give my opinion only to the books printing. First it is only artificial leather bounded. Therefore the price is a little bit too high. 35 - 40$ US should have been enough for this issue. Otherwise the printing inside is ok and very good to read, because the letters are not too small and not as bad as some customers have written here. Also the book block is not glued slanting into the book and the map at the end is also ok. All in all 4 stars and not 5, because of the cover material and the high price.
Rating: Summary: Lord of the Rings, Collector's Edition Review: I recently bought this book and i was very nervous that the quality would have been as bad as some had said. I am very very relieved to tell you that i can hardly notice the uneveness in the text. The "broken letters" can't even be seen (by me), and the overall quality of the book is amazing. So, if you are surfing the reviews wondering if this is the book for you, dont worry, you wont regret it. I was very worried and most people seem to talk about the book material rather than the edition, which is all well and good. Dont be fooled, you will not regret this purchase. If you are wondering if it is the copy for you or not, then this book should do it. The only other nice edition is the one with illustrations. Some people like illustrations, i do not. It seems to take away from the story, but each to his own i suppose. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Rating: Summary: One of the best Science fiction books ever written. Review: J.R.R. Tolkein was not the best writer, and yet his words captivated the soul, he did run on in his sentences, but be honest, does anyone notice it unless they are trying to play the devils advocate. Honestly this is one of my favorite books, although the very first edition of the book from back in the 70's is a bit hard to understand, it is still a great book. It has action, and will keep you enthrilled untill the very end, this edition of The Lord of The Rings sells for 75 dollars at retail, so finding it at 52 dollars is a real releif for me. I may seem like a person trying to be a fanatik, but to tell you the truth, even though in the begining of this book it is hard for you to stay awake, but in the end it starts to captivate your mind and ensnare you into the story, making it a wonderful book to read, I would recommmend this book to any person, be the person 10, or 80, you are never too old to read a book, and if you have a good vocabulary, never too young, but even against its bad features, this book lives up to its legends, that is why so many people love this book.
Rating: Summary: Eh, it's not bad, it's not great either Review: I got this massive thing for christmas and I must say I was a bit daunted. I've read a lot of books in the 600 to 700 page realm but very few this long. So I figure it can't be to difficult, so I dove right in and what did I find? What I found was a great concept delivered in a pretty dull fashion. The Lord of the Rings is a 1000 page epic adventure, which if you narrowed it down could have probably been a lot shorter, a lot more concise and a lot easier to read. I don't know about anyone else, but I found the endless pages of descriptions of then walking around and where the hills were in comparison to their location a bit tiresome. After a while I began to just skim over those parts and hope for some action to come. And when the action came, it was horribly underwhelming. It was hard to realize when it should be exciting. For example, in the climatic scene with Gollum, Frodo, and Sam in Mordor, when the climax finally happened(I don't want to go into the details and spoil it for anyone wanting to read it) I didn't really feel anything about it. Nothing at all. It sort of just went through me. Was I susposed to feel excited or something? Anyway, I still think this book was worth reading, if not for the fact that it's one of those cultural standards that everyone has read. I give it three stars because the story is well thoughtout and Mr. Tolkien was definatly not lazy, hell he created a whole language and all those family trees. It was just more than a little dull for my liking. By the way, i'm reading The Hobbit as we speak and finding it a much better read. Theirs no endless stream of names that I have no idea about, or endless descriptions of things I don't care about, and (gasp), I actually feel suspense in certain parts, eh gad.
Rating: Summary: Nice Edition of LOTR -- Great Illustrations Review: There are plenty of reviews on this site that can tell you what a great book the Lord of the Rings is -- it really is very enjoyable tale and worth multiple reads, despite its length. Although you can certainly read the story in other, cheaper editions, this one is worth having for several reasons: 1) The novel is in one volume as Tolkien intended, rather than three -- makes it easier to jump around among favorite scenes. 2) The volume is well constructed, with good quality paper and binding; it should hold up well for multiple reads. 3) Most importantly, the 50 illustrations by Alan Lee nicely capture Tolkien's vision in the Ring, including the landscapes of Middle Earth, its creatures, and its structures. Whereas some illustrators have made the LOTR (and more so the Hobbit) look like cartoons, Alan Lee's illustrations have a solid reality to them. It is interesting to note that Lee was one of the artists whose work was incorporated into the recent Peter Jackson film(s) -- I thought that the "Fellowship" movie was visually stunning, and some of the imagery can be traced back to these illustrations created in the early 1990s for the 100th anniversery of Tolkien's birth. ... Bottom line is that this is a great edition to have if you want a nicely bound, creatively illustrated copy of LOTR.
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