HarperCollins Publishers Ltd The Fellowship of the Ring

As a huge nerd and book lover I was very excited to read this. Unfortunately it proved to be the best in the series and was very slow. It is an interesting book and contains a lot of very interesting parts which are not included in the film. A lovely world to dive into and I would recommend but unfortunately it was very slow and difficult to read. The Illustrations are lovely and the hardback edition is very easy to read in terms of print size. Unfortunately it arrived heavily damaged and was not well packaged. If you are going to buy any editions, I would buy these as they are lovely.

An unfortunate consequence of the success of The Lord of the Rings has been that frequent resetting has engendered errors by the hundred. In some copies, the ring verse has lost its last line; in others, The Council of Elrond its last two sentences. The chief virtue of this 50th Anniversary Edition of The Fellowship of the Ring (ISBN 9780007203543) is that its text, prepared by some of the most eminent Tolkienologists on Arda, is undoubtedly the most accurate ever published.Based on Tolkien's own second edition, the book omits his 1954 Foreword, which he himself came to regret as misconceived, but includes his revised Foreword of 1966 and his 1966 Prologue. We're also given a seven page Note on the Text by Douglas A. Anderson, as well as a four page Note on the 50th Anniversary Edition by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull.Tolkien would probably chuckle if he knew that two of his frustrated wishes for his book have finally been granted half a century after he proposed them. The tengwar ring inscription has at last been printed in fiery red instead of black; and a tipped in, fold-out plate reproduces his laboriously crafted, battle-distressed pages from the Book of Mazarbul, already well known to fans from their appearance in a Tolkien calendar and then in Pictures by J. R. R. Tolkien. The inscription on the Door of Moria, by contrast, remains in its familiar black on white, a retreat from the arguably more fitting white on black alternative ventured in the large format hardcover edition featuring paintings by Alan Lee. The only other illustrations are Christopher Tolkien's canonical red and black maps of part of the Shire and of the west of Middle-earth, the latter in its much improved, Unfinished Tales version but now reduced to only about a quarter of its original area. Readers with eyes as keen as Gwaihir's may regret that lines that were once firm and true are now pixelatedly fuzzy; those who would prefer a larger map should seek out the poster-sized version redone by John Howe ( The Maps of Tolkien's Middle-earth: Special Edition ).The design of the text is very similar to that of the second edition, the only obvious difference being that the PostScript Monotype Plantin font is slightly smaller than the Imprint font of yore. The traditional tengwar and runes still adorn the title page, now accompanied by a JRRT monogram. L.E.G.O., Harper Collins's Italian printer, has printed the text crisply on a smooth, cream-coloured paper much like that often used by Everyman's Library, a touch less opaque than would be ideal but not to the point of being objectionable.The book is signature bound with a black and yellow headband, and comes in a robust black cover with elegant gilt lettering. It lies nicely flat when opened. The dust jacket, matt and reminiscent of parchment but with a tough plastic lining, allows us to enjoy a motif painted by Tolkien himself, in which Sauron's Eye stares at us through the Ruling Ring and its tengwar, while Vilya, Nenya and Narya jointly confront his malevolence. The jacket's English lettering is printed in a striking copper foil, which lamplight kindles to a gleam that's rather beautiful.This admirable, almost perfect edition of Tolkien's masterpiece probably comes closer than any other to bringing us his book in the form that he desired. Warmly recommended. The Maps of Tolkien's Middle-earth: Special Edition

I am not a book critic so i will not even attempt to dive into the inner workings of this masterpiece, i have been a LOTR fan for years, I even have the Ring replica as my wedding band from the ONLY licensed workshop in the world able to make real replicas.Arrived promptly, i really wished i had bought the hardback book though10/10

The Fellowship of the Ring is the beginning of Tolkien's epic saga, The Lord of the Rings. Widely considered as a classic, this trilogy begins in the rolling fields of the shire and takes us through a journey of enormous proportions till at last we reach our destination in Mordor. The character development as we go through this saga is second to none as we watch our heroes Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin, Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli and Boromir all do great deeds,to enable the fellowship to complete it's quest.In this version of the book, it has a wonderful cover design which draws on the story itself and fantastically depicts part of a famous scene within the story when Gandalf's fireworks are all alight at Bilbo and Frodo's birthday party. As this is part of a set, it also has a sleeve design which when placed together with the other books in this set forms one of the most prominent images from the three books, the white tree of Gondor. A well crafted cover, with maps featuring inside the sleeves, I would recommend this version of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring to any one who wishes to own their own version of this masterpiece.

Cited elsewhere as the book of the century, and it is a bloody marvellous thing. But Tolkien himself described it as book that grew in the telling, as did it seems all of his major works. But its lumpy. It begins as a kids story and ends up as a truly epic tale. Unfortunately once he had discovered what he'd made he had no time (or interest) to make-over the beginning of the story, hence it reads like a WIP. This of course accounts for why so much was passed over by Jackson in making his first three wonderful films (Hobbit films not to same standard). Hence no old man willow, no old forest and no tom bombidil, not even in the Director's cut versions. But that said this is a fantastic book and as early reviews predicted - the world is made up of those who have read LotR and those who will. Something to aspire to JKR