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laurencarter's review against another edition
3.0
This is basically a Tolkien dictionary.
An A-Z guide of people, place, animals, plants and creatures from middle-earth - describing who or what they are and, in some cases, their life story.
The illustrations alongside some of the entries were amazing (except you Frodo, yours was terrifying and didn't accurately represent you at all in my mind - but hey, it's the artists in interpretation).
The only problem was information was repeated, a lot, and I felt that this could have been cut down if there was cross over by stating *see this entry for more detail*.
An A-Z guide of people, place, animals, plants and creatures from middle-earth - describing who or what they are and, in some cases, their life story.
The illustrations alongside some of the entries were amazing (except you Frodo, yours was terrifying and didn't accurately represent you at all in my mind - but hey, it's the artists in interpretation).
The only problem was information was repeated, a lot, and I felt that this could have been cut down if there was cross over by stating *see this entry for more detail*.
kayleighofhobbiton's review against another edition
5.0
Handy when you want to know something about middle earth. :D
bedneyauthor's review against another edition
informative
2.0
There were several wrong details and I didn't think much of the quality of the illustrations. It was by no means bad and most of it is a useful reference, but the mistakes that were there meant that I felt like I need to double-check details.
lordofthemoon's review against another edition
4.0
This book is more an encyclopaedia than a bestiary, since it covers various peoples and even individuals as well as races and creatures. The art is lovely, not necessarily what I would associate with Tolkien, but strong and beautiful nonetheless. There are line drawings spread throughout, pretty much on every page, and there are a number of colour page spreads clustered in a few areas as well. It's pretty comprehensive, using all of Tolkien's primary works of Arda, and with an index to primary sources at the back as well as a general index of the book itself.
Parts of it did make for rather uneasy reading, though, generally where races of men other than the Edain/Númenóreans were mentioned, as they were inevitable dark skinned and either evil in and of themselves or under the sway of Melkor/Sauron. This is something that may be easier to ignore in [b: The Lord of the Rings|33|The Lord of the Rings (The Lord of the Rings, #1-3)|J.R.R. Tolkien|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1547450792s/33.jpg|3462456], as they come up less, but in a book about races, it's rather more stark. This doesn't stop me from loving either book, but it's a reminder of the world that Tolkien grew up in and the cultural shorthands he took for granted.
But looking beyond that, it's a gorgeous book, impeccably researched and illustrated that deserves a place on the bookshelf of every Tolkien fan.
Parts of it did make for rather uneasy reading, though, generally where races of men other than the Edain/Númenóreans were mentioned, as they were inevitable dark skinned and either evil in and of themselves or under the sway of Melkor/Sauron. This is something that may be easier to ignore in [b: The Lord of the Rings|33|The Lord of the Rings (The Lord of the Rings, #1-3)|J.R.R. Tolkien|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1547450792s/33.jpg|3462456], as they come up less, but in a book about races, it's rather more stark. This doesn't stop me from loving either book, but it's a reminder of the world that Tolkien grew up in and the cultural shorthands he took for granted.
But looking beyond that, it's a gorgeous book, impeccably researched and illustrated that deserves a place on the bookshelf of every Tolkien fan.
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