The Complete History of Middle-earth Hardcover – Special Edition, 21 Sept. 2017

If you really love Tolkien, The Complete History of Middle-earth is an absolutely essential purchase. It contains an astonishing wealth of material about JRRT's legendarium that no fan of the great man's should miss. But which edition to buy isn't an easy question.As of October 2023, you can get three fat hardcover books in a slip-case, a deluxe version of the same, or a set of thirteen basic-grade paperbacks that include an index volume and feature spectacular covers with paintings by John Howe. (HarperCollins used to offer print-on-demand hardback versions of the Complete History's first editions, but that option has been discontinued.) Until now, my preference has been for the deluxe collection. Its paper is as thin as a Bible's, but of excellent quality, and I appreciated its reasonable pricing and the modest demands that it made on my shelf space. But a new edition that will be appearing in stages in 2023 and 2024 looks likely to be even better.Appearing in four box sets, the latest version of the History will include not just the supplementary index volume but also reprints of the first editions of The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales—newer editions of the latter titles have revised pagination that's frustrating for readers who want to follow up on Christopher Tolkien's references. Each book will have a reversible cover, with one side reproducing the History's traditional livery and the other using John Howe's artwork from the paperbacks. The new edition will be uniform with the latest box set of hardcover versions of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings illustrated by Alan Lee—which is extremely encouraging, as those books use exceptionally thick, high quality paper that's completely free from the transparency issues that marred the 50th anniversary edition of The Lord.To sum up, the 15 volumes of the latest edition seem to me almost certain to be the most desirable ever, offering us everything that we could possibly want. I'll have no hesitation about adding them to my collection, although heaven only knows where I'll find the room for them!

This is a very big set of books. Well worth it to complete your collection and to keep on your bookcase. They look superb too next to my other de luxe editions. The print is very easy to read but be aware the books are obviously heavy. I read my sat at my desk. Not the best solution I know but worth it to complete the series. The paper is thin but manageable and not too thin that you see through. Love it. A must for Tolkien fans.

A must have for all Tolkien fans

I finally got my hands on The History of Middle Earth which is a must have for all collectors, the books set arrived in perfect condition.

I bought this as a Tolkien fan (not fanatic) so that I could dip in and out. To that extent it fulfils my expectations and in addition looks lovely in my bookcase with my other Tolkien books.Definitely worthy of the price but also definitely not for someone trying to get into the world of Tolkien for the first time.

Superb to get this compact (yet large) set of books, as the separate volumes are quite hard to get in a matching run.Very happy, but the paper is very thin, which was a necessity due to the amount of content.Still the tidiest edition I’ve seen, so now I have a set.

So far great compendium of Histories for Middle earth.The delivery was poor though.It must have got bashed around in the mail. No protection or wrapping was placed around it.

If you're a big fan of Tolkien/Collector then this is a must buy. The manufacturing of the books is exceptional, the pages (as expected) are quite thin BUT this is not a criticism, the quality of the paper completely makes up for this with a very soft finish to the paper. My main concern with this set was the books would be too impractical to actually read from due to the size of the books, I can confirm that, yes they are bulky but surprisingly quite easy to read from.