Excellent at what it is meant to do | The Maps of Tolkien's Middle-Earth

Perfection | The Maps of Tolkien's Middle-Earth | Brian Sibley

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	• The Maps of Tolkien's Middle-Earth Brian Sibley Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2003 - 80 pages average customer review:based on 16 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Good Deal

These are four maps drawn by John Howe, an artist well-known as a Tolkien illustrator. If you're not familiar with his work I suggest checking it out. The maps are of Beleriand, Numenor, Middle Earth, and of the lands journeyed through in The Hobbit. All of the maps have a thick border with symbols, captions, and illustrations and are real works of art. The maps are 28x28 and come folded up inside of a hardcover jacket. The maps are accompanied by a thin hardcover book by Brian Sibley that sheds some light on what's in the maps. I haven't read all of the way through it but I don't think there's anything new if you've already read the Silmarillion, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings. The only drawback is that I have to custom order frames to put them in cause it's hard to find 28x28 frames in stores.

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Excellent at what it is meant to do

I bought this in preparation of a re-reading of the Lord of the Rings.

I found the maps not only much more beautiful than the ones in the original books (and even if they are not "original", I do not care), but - most importantly for me - I found them made with a respect for the magic of the book, with a "Tolkienness" in them which, to me, is more important than, say, the spotless completeness of the information given.

Having said that, by re-reading the book I came to appreciate the fact that the maps, which I initially thought poor in detail level, were much more detailed than I had initially thought.

Whilst one can certainly enjoy Tolkien without these maps, I am satisfied with the purchase and think that the author has done his job very properly.

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Perfection

Other than the fact that the maps are absolutely beautiful, the 80 page booklet by Sibley is alone worth the money. He offers detailed, yet summarized, histories of Beleriand and Numenor. As someone that loves Tolkien's work, yet couldn't finish The Silmarillion, I found this book extremely effective in finding out what happened to the tragic island of Men, and the downfall of the 2nd Age. The Hobbit map is particularly well-drawn, and a marvel to look at, even if you know where everything already is with your eyes closed. As for the Map of Middle-earth, it doesn't offer anything new as far as details of minute locations, but it does serve as a great tool to read along the Trilogy with. There is also some beautiful artwork around the bordering of the Maps. Overall, I would say that this my favorite purchase in Tolkien's realm, other than the Trilogy and the Hobbit.

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Not really maps...

Well, when I'm looking at maps in reference from Tolkien's novels I want to be able to track movement of characters (though I know most pathways by heart) and see terrain. These are essentially (to me) pictures, not maps. Very nice pictures, though. Too bad they're folded instead of rolled, since then, as pictures, they could be framed. I recommend The Atlas of Middle-Earth (Revised Edition) for reference maps.

Love it

Very good. Ilustrations are amazing. For the Lord of The Rings fan(like me) is a must. Thank you

Best-selling Tolkien expert Brian Sibley (The Lord of the Rings: The Making of the Movie Trilogy and The Lord of the Rings Official Movie Guide) presents a slipcased collection of four full-color, large-format maps of Tolkien's imaginary realm illustrated by John Howe, a conceptual designer for the blockbuster films directed by Peter Jackson. The set includes a hardcover book describing in detail the importance and evolution of geography within Tolkien's epic fiction and four color maps presented with minimal folds, including two (Beleriand and Númenor) never before published in this country.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

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