The "Fellowship of the Ring" Visual Companion ("Lord of the Rings" The)

This is the best of the many books trying to be 'visual companions' to the film. I appreciated not only the quality of photo selections from the movie, but also the small details such as the dust cover photo also being on the hard cover. (I removed my dust cover to save wear and tear!)The character descriptions are complete, very insightful, and geared more toward the novice aficionado of the LOTR story. They also provide in wonderful brevity much helpful background information for those who may not have read the book. This book centers on the film--not the making of the film.While my seventh graders loved this thing, I found myself also looking through the beautiful color stills time and time again. Action is captured with breathtaking realism from the movie, and especially vivid is the ferocity the Orcs! I've seen many 'picture books' which have attempted to visualize and summarize this wonderful story. None were as good at both as this one. It captures it all, and "The Two Towers" companion work is on its way!

Lord Of The Rings: Fellowship Of The Ring Visual Companion is the official authorized companion to the movie, published to coincide with its release, and provides an excellent encyclopedic guide to the characters, plot, and setting of Middle-earth. A center fold-out page may not lend to library lending longevity but movie fans will find this a fitting tribute, explaining and exploring the complex setting and plot. Don't miss Brian Sibley's Official Movie Guide either: it provides a souvenir celebration of the film with background scenes, interviews, and insights into the film's making.

The "Lord of the Rings" movie recently was probably the best movie I've seen, and Jude Fisher's accompanying visual companion is a good piece of work.It gives a concise, good summary of people, places and different races in Middle-Earth. It'll tell moviegoers background tidbits not in the movie: why Sam is fascinated by Elves, what happened to Frodo's parents, that Legolas is a prince, what Elrond's ancestry is, and Gandalf's true nature.We are filled in less so on places: Lothlorien itself gets only four paragraphs. Individual species get more space: We hear about the history of the human Men of Middle-Earth, about the habits of the hobbits, and the "leaving these shores" comment about the Elves.I would like to remind some of the other reviewers that many people -- adults and children -- have not read the books and this book is probably for them. So to give away massive spoilers concerning Moria would be very bad news. (Just as this book doesn't let us know what happens to certain characters) So it's inevitable that some parts of the plot, especially those that hinge the plot, will not be revealed. Some clues about events in "Two Towers" are given -- look carefully. The pictures are very good, very well chosen -- the ones of Frodo and Sam in particular.Overall, if you have never read the LOTR trilogy (or "Hobbit") then this is definitely the book to pick up. It won't clue you in on every exquisite detail, but it will get rid of much of your confusion.

I love the Lord of the Rings series and movie - I've read the books many times since I was young, and have seen the movie several times already. This is a fantastic companion book to both. It gives organized information on each of the main characters, describes some of the key plot elements in the story, and has large, full color photos that aren't found anywhere else. The pictures are great - they show just how much incredible work went into the details on the movie. While other movies use blue-screen and just computer-generate everything, with LotR they fabricated thousands and thousands of items by hand. Every race was thought out - what would an elf fork look like? How about a hobbit pipe? The armor was individually made, the mail shirts constructed from thousands of individual links. Even tiny fragments of parchment on the ground in the Mines of Moria had tiny runes on them. You can see that awesome attention to detail in these photos.One of the best features of the book for me was the great fold-out map in its middle. Far better than the small ones you get in the books! On the downside, they bound the book right through its center, instead of offsetting the map so it could be hung, or at least binding in white space. The result is that Gondor turns into Gndor and Rohan into ohan, and a lot of key features like Moria are lost in that binding. Such a simple thing to have done differently! But other than that gripe, this is definitely a must-have for any fan of the series.

This is a beautiful visual companion to The Fellowship of the Ring, the first movie in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. All of the major races and many of the major characters are profiled with gorgeous color photographs...many of which I haven't seen in my 2+ years of collecting these photo's on a daily basis. The first chapter deals with history of the rings and the last alliance of elves and men. Hobbits, Men, Elves, Dwarves, Istari, Orcs, Uruk-Hai, and the Nazgul follow with each profiling major figures and/or locations associated with that particular race.The book is just what is says, a visual companion. There is very little in the way of textual information...you should buy the Official Movie Guide for that.All in all, well worth purchasing.