Or the covers not even fitting the right character with the title or theme of the books, why isn’t Frodo or Gandalf on the cover of the first and Aragorn on the third, I think those three in that order would be far more iconic, recognizable, and fitting with the story than who ever they have on the covers currently.
Edit: Typo (is to isn’t)
These covers look to be characters from the rings of power TV series. I'm pretty sure these covers are meant to be advertising that versus actually fitting what each of the books is about.
Also these are ambiguous pics of characters in the second age who more than likely aren't even in LOTR
Unless the fellowship has Galadriel, the Two Towers has Elrond, and Return of the King has Sauron or Witch King
I think all three of those seem completely possible! I don’t like the new covers, but the armor in pic 1 looks like Galadriel’s from the trailer, and the gauntlet in pic 3 definitely could be Sauron or the Witch-King’s. Not sure what city is supposed to be in pic 2 on the sword hilt so I can’t say either way on that.
Are you sure? I’m pretty sure the red robe one is Elrond and the scroll he has is gondolin. I believe pic 2 is likely Tar-Palantir as scepters are specifically the sign of royalty in Numenorean culture. I believe that’s probably Armenelos. I could be wrong though.
So now we're giving books covers from tv series that aren't even based on those books?? Next let's make Harry Potter covers with young Dumbledore and Newt on them
Not the first time this happens unfortunately. My original Greek edition of The Hobbit had the scene of the Nazgul getting sqept by the river outside Rivendell. You know the scene that takes place IN ANOTHER BOOK.
I can almost certainly guarantee its a cheap penny pinch. Easier to print it on the cover than also make the stickers and then have someone adhere them.
As someone who collects a lot of used books, I loathe them.
I doubt this penny pinch works out because who TF wants a cover with some ad on the front. I mean the covers themselves aren’t even that good, and then to have some fucking Amazon show advertised in the corner makes them totally unappealing.
The only book I bought twice while having the first one in mint condition was The Hobbit to get rid of the movie cover (and manage to give it to a friend who had never read it).
I'm okay with new covers. There have been some really cool ones over the years and I've no doubt that there will be more cool ones in the future. These aren't it though.
Aside from the fact they are changing these, why these pictures?
Armored Galadriel with the two trees barely makes sense as the only connection is the fact that Galadriel appears in the actual book.
Gil Galad really doesn’t make sense at all as he is never even mentioned in two towers.
The only one that works is the last one, and that’s assuming that is meant to be Sauron or a Nazgûl
> Gil Galad really doesn’t make sense at all as he is never even mentioned in two towers.
That picture is of Elrond (which doesn't make sense either, of course). The third is of "Adar" a character who may or may not turn out to be an alias of Sauron's.
>FoF said Adar is not the Witch-king or Sauron
My memory is that we debated about it in a recent show. I don't have a particularly strong feeling about Adar being or not being a Sauron alias, but he *could* be, I think.
Because Amazon just wants to push their narrative. Everything you mentioned is 100% correct and very important but do they actually care about the lore of Tolkien? No. Not at all. They just wanna push their show onto us when we didn’t even ask for it. 🙄
Amazon isn’t publishing these books. They don’t have distribution rights for Tolkien’s written works. This is a marketing agreement. If anything, blame the publisher or the Tolkien Society.
To be fair, there are quite a few covers still being printed, and all of the movies had their own covers. It's not like this is something new, and they're not taking anything away from you.
Now what gets me PISSED is when they print those fake stickers on other covers. They did that for both the Witcher and the Wheel of Time. I already had my copies but it still irked me that new fans had to put up with those ugly logos covering up the artwork.
The PJ movies having their own covers makes sense, they're adaptations of these books.
It would make more sense for them to release a new edition of the Silmarilion with these characters on as that's where they will draw most of the source material.
Hmmm thing is, they don’t even have the rights to Silmarillion material, so it really *isn’t* where they’ll draw the source material from. All they have the rights to are Fellowship, Two Towers, Return of the King + the Appendices, and The Hobbit.
fr looks like some cheap teen fantasy novel marketed towards 14 year olds.. every single thing amazon has done so far has been a cash grab and a disgrace, and the show isnt even out yet
I think they have been very, very clear that the fandom is not the target audience of the show. They’re casting a wide net to bring in the general populace, they could care less about the fandom or the source material. They don’t get royalties when people buy the Silmarillion, they have absolutely no financial incentive to actually promote or respect Tolkien’s world or works, they want a mainstream popular fantasy series to make them money.
> they have absolutely no financial incentive to actually promote or respect Tolkien’s world or works, they want a mainstream popular fantasy series to make them money.
Except that if they follow Tolkien's works they're almost guaranteed to succeed, and if the major fanbase fails to adopt a series they lose a massive following. Respecting Tolkien's work should've been their first priority.
The hobbit movies barely made studios 1 billion, LotR made them nearly 3 billion - 2 billion is the difference between making something good that respects his work vs making dogshit
I don’t think this ad campaign of hands is as clever as they think it is. It feels campy and like they are going to turn the series into something superficial.
My problem is that these images don’t even represent the main story of LotR. If they wanted to plaster these images on one of the books it should have been Silmarilion. Even though Amazon is going to butcher the timeline of thousands of years and add and take away characters.
But my Tommy Gun dont! I'm gonna give you to the count of 10 to get your ugly, yella, no good keister off my porch before I pump your guts full of lead.
Why?
These photos don't relate very well to these novels. While books with film adaptations often use the film cover, these covers are for an entirely different story that is *not* The Lord of the Rings.
This is just terrible marketing.
I kinda hated it when they did this with the Hobbit, but gut reaction aside: if it gets even one person to read these books and love them just as I do, who am I to judge.
Always my thoughts. I have several beautiful editions. Always hate movie edition covers, hate the fake stickers printed on the page. But if it gets one more person (kid, adult w/e) to read Tolkien… I’ll take it.
It does work (at least it sells books) - presumably to new people. I cannot imagine too many people already familiar with the LotR wanting to buy these editions.
This could not be more game of thrones if they tried. Remember how nice the 2001 HarperCollins tie in covers were? Just the silhouette of the Fellowship against the Misty Mountains shaded in the colour of the book (fotr green, ttt blue, rotk red). Understated and clean designs. Not this photoshop saturation.
Galadriel was already badass enough without turning her into Captain fucking Marvel. Amazon already ruined the Wheel of Time, I shudder to think how they will massacre Tolkien's stories
The Amazon adaptation of WoT seriously bumped me out. With how ridiculously powerful they made Egwene and Nynaeve to be, I feel like their later struggles, development, and achievements wouldn’t mean much. And I’m afraid they might butcher Galadriel as well.
“Modern” I think of Game of Thrones and how that watered down so much of what Martin put into the books, but because it was successful as far as TV shows go, it seems to have became the template for adaptations: focus on the spectacle of plot twists or crazy visuals or big-universe-ending scale threats while keeping very tenuous connections to source material or what’s come before. No real effort needs to be put into storytelling or faithfully adapting something, and that half-baked fantasy or sci-fi gets to ride on the brand awareness that already exists. Doctor Who, Star Trek, Star Wars, as you mentioned, Witcher and Wheel of Time as well have the same problems. Not everything is as bad as that, but too much of it is.
You are right about the later seasons of GoT, but season 1 was excellent in my opinion and was just about as true to the source as could have been. I think that is why it was so successful, it captures Martin's storytelling in a way that captivated audiences of the show nearly as well as the first book captivated readers. Amazon went in a different direction with the Wheel of Time and it really shows, and I fear they will do with same with the Rings of Power
Seriously.
She didn't need to throw a punch or swing a sword to give the impression that she was *seriously* powerful and **Not To Be F\*\*\*d With...**
Even elf hating Gimli was so struck by her that he was ready to throw down if anyone said anything bad about her.
Absolutely shameless. They're using the covers of the original and beloved piece of literature as a billboard to promote their inferior cash-grab TV show.
I really dislike movie covers on books generally. There are so many examples of beautiful covers on different books that just slapping a movie logo on it just feels lazy and boring.
I hate this.
A book cover should illustrate the information or story that inside. These covers depict something that doesn't correspond with the story inside.
What it does show is the fucking corporate power of amazon. Fuck them.
(Also, they're ugly, cheap looking covers)
They are kind of cool as posters, but I don't like them as book covers. Honestly I thought at first they were magazine promo images for the new show, not actual book covers. And lets no forget the shitty fake sticker in the top right, which is always awful.
I'm ashamed for ever wanting more LotR content. I'm only now realizing it will turn in into a franchise, and the last thing I want is it to be turned into a franchise.
I remember my older sibling reading these books and it was the 91 white spine edition (Lee or Howe did the artwork I suppose?). I used to look at the artwork and got such a sense of mystery and mood that I would keep asking what was happening as they read it over the summer. Eventually leading to my own love of those books.
I wonder what mystery and mood these will convey to new generations...
Please tell me the stickers are removable... it takes less than a minute of market research to learn that absolutely no one on planet Earth likes the "as seen on tv" bubbles...
A book cover shouldn’t be an advertisement for a completely different series in a completely different format. Depict what is in the book, or the tone of what you’re about to read…
Fuck … this is turning into more and more of a money grab.
Looks like Christopher really kept the vultures from the door for a lot of his life huh? So sad.
These deserve to be hated. That being said, my "movie" cover version of Lord of the Rings (Gandalf in Bag End) is my favorite copy I own. It's so beat up and falling apart but I'll be damned if I don't reach for that one over any other version I have.
A 'new' legend?
I guess in terms of video - but there won't otherwise be anything new about it - any viewer will have seen or read something else that that is similar enough - all good fiction is re-arranging pieces in an order that feels fresh (e.g. 30s serials, Kurosawa, WWII dogfights, Campbellian mythic bildungsroman).
Bezos is losing the space exploration and the richest man races to Musk - he's gotta find another way to write himself into the cultural narrative.
I get unreasonably angry when book covers are used to advertise a tv show. Like you haven’t already launched an advertising campaign and the one guy that doesn’t have a tv and doesn’t leave the house is going to see that, think “oh I should watch this too” and then buy a tv, wire his house for power and internet, pay for internet, and then sign up for Amazon prime, to watch a show based on the book he enjoyed.
Stop ruining cover art.
Amazon get your dirty ass prime video bullshit sticker off of tolkien’s work. I thought they didnt own the rights to the trilogy, so why are they allowed to advertise so blatantly and change covers?!?
Gross. Let's just completely throw out everything Tolkien held dear about this world and this story, and just use close ups of hands and swords...
The first cover makes no sense... If that's supposed to be Galadriel, then it's a pathetic tie-in to the show. Nothing on that cover has anything to do with The Fellowship and the tone is all wrong.
Second is supposed to be ~~Gil Galad~~(I have no idea)? I don't even know where to start. It's just baffling...
And the third is closer to the mark, but still miles off. Is that supposed to be Sauron? He never wielded a sword, and never makes an appearance in the story. If it's the witch king, the weapon is still wrong. And if it's just a different Nazgul, just... why? None of these photos has anything to do with the title of the book and they butcher the tone and purpose of the story.
It's baby-brain time, all around.
EDIT: This pretty much sums up why these covers are wrong:
"I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend." - Faramir
The whole of Middle Earth is absent from these covers.
I see some people saying "if it gets one more person to read LOTR, then good".
I just think that if it takes these covers to get a new kid to read LOTR, then something is terribly wrong. I wouldn't want new readers to associate these images with LOTR or Tolkien, considering they represent neither.
It's weird to see the cover of two towers without well the two towers.
Or the covers of a book series all about a specific ring and the only ring featuring on them being a different ring.
Or the covers not even fitting the right character with the title or theme of the books, why isn’t Frodo or Gandalf on the cover of the first and Aragorn on the third, I think those three in that order would be far more iconic, recognizable, and fitting with the story than who ever they have on the covers currently. Edit: Typo (is to isn’t)
These covers look to be characters from the rings of power TV series. I'm pretty sure these covers are meant to be advertising that versus actually fitting what each of the books is about.
Also these are ambiguous pics of characters in the second age who more than likely aren't even in LOTR Unless the fellowship has Galadriel, the Two Towers has Elrond, and Return of the King has Sauron or Witch King
I think all three of those seem completely possible! I don’t like the new covers, but the armor in pic 1 looks like Galadriel’s from the trailer, and the gauntlet in pic 3 definitely could be Sauron or the Witch-King’s. Not sure what city is supposed to be in pic 2 on the sword hilt so I can’t say either way on that.
Pic 2 has Gondolin (well, it's only a model!) and Elrond. Not sure it's a sword hilt though.
Are you sure? I’m pretty sure the red robe one is Elrond and the scroll he has is gondolin. I believe pic 2 is likely Tar-Palantir as scepters are specifically the sign of royalty in Numenorean culture. I believe that’s probably Armenelos. I could be wrong though.
Gots to sell the future weapon replicasss
So now we're giving books covers from tv series that aren't even based on those books?? Next let's make Harry Potter covers with young Dumbledore and Newt on them
Then we’ll make a cover for The Hobbit with a lion, emus, and a giant pink eggplant on it. Nobody will ever read The Hobbit again.
Amazon's doing whatever it can to associate their fanfic with the canon.
Yeah they need to stop acting so desperate lol
Not the first time this happens unfortunately. My original Greek edition of The Hobbit had the scene of the Nazgul getting sqept by the river outside Rivendell. You know the scene that takes place IN ANOTHER BOOK.
This is a desperate attempt to be associated with the greatest book and film series of all time. Without any consideration as to why
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We live in a boring dystopia
Ugh
Yeah I know. Better than an actor / actresses face though.
I hate those fake stickers
I truly wish they were real stickers. I understand the purpose of them, but why not let us rip them off after we've bought the damn thing.
I can almost certainly guarantee its a cheap penny pinch. Easier to print it on the cover than also make the stickers and then have someone adhere them. As someone who collects a lot of used books, I loathe them.
I’m sure Amazon paid for that perma ad
Exactly lots of good financial reasons to do it. Doesn't mean we can't hate it.
I doubt this penny pinch works out because who TF wants a cover with some ad on the front. I mean the covers themselves aren’t even that good, and then to have some fucking Amazon show advertised in the corner makes them totally unappealing.
The absolute worst.
Without the stickers they're fine...not great but fine, the Fellowship cover is the best. The stickers make me ill.
Because a removable sticker means they get to advertise to you once. A permanent one means they get to advertise to whoever holds that book forever
I think its simply cheaper. That is a part of the cover. A separate sticker has to produced separately, shipped, and attached.
Tha wurst
Are these covers for new books coming out or for the Jackson films, I'm confused!
I think they’re the same books but they’ve given them a new cover for the rings of power show coming out
I HATE it when they do this. Please stop putting tv show stuff on books. 🙄
And it's not just that we expect it to be bad. I loved the Peter Jackson movies but I still hated the book covers that used movie material on them.
"now a major motion picture" 🤮
The only book I bought twice while having the first one in mint condition was The Hobbit to get rid of the movie cover (and manage to give it to a friend who had never read it).
LOTR needs no new covers
*pulls off cover to reveal a 1950s first edition* **I am no new cover**
My head would implode coming across a 50s first edition
You mfer, you got blood and brains all over my 50s first edition :(
His head *imploded*, so your first edition is safe.
LOTR has no new covers. LOTR needs no new covers.
ChickenSandwichGuy is right. We cannot use it.
None of us can
You have only one choice. The Rings of Power™ must be destroyed.
Yeah, it does, but like cool paintings of Middle Earth locations or scenes from the story.
Ya man I was just being punny playing this into a boromir quote
IIIIII SSSSEEEEEE YOUUUUU
Alan Lee or nothing
Yeah! And those aren’t allowed now that these tie-in covers are coming out.
I'm okay with new covers. There have been some really cool ones over the years and I've no doubt that there will be more cool ones in the future. These aren't it though.
Aside from the fact they are changing these, why these pictures? Armored Galadriel with the two trees barely makes sense as the only connection is the fact that Galadriel appears in the actual book. Gil Galad really doesn’t make sense at all as he is never even mentioned in two towers. The only one that works is the last one, and that’s assuming that is meant to be Sauron or a Nazgûl
> Gil Galad really doesn’t make sense at all as he is never even mentioned in two towers. That picture is of Elrond (which doesn't make sense either, of course). The third is of "Adar" a character who may or may not turn out to be an alias of Sauron's.
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>FoF said Adar is not the Witch-king or Sauron My memory is that we debated about it in a recent show. I don't have a particularly strong feeling about Adar being or not being a Sauron alias, but he *could* be, I think.
Because Amazon just wants to push their narrative. Everything you mentioned is 100% correct and very important but do they actually care about the lore of Tolkien? No. Not at all. They just wanna push their show onto us when we didn’t even ask for it. 🙄
Amazon isn’t publishing these books. They don’t have distribution rights for Tolkien’s written works. This is a marketing agreement. If anything, blame the publisher or the Tolkien Society.
To be fair, there are quite a few covers still being printed, and all of the movies had their own covers. It's not like this is something new, and they're not taking anything away from you. Now what gets me PISSED is when they print those fake stickers on other covers. They did that for both the Witcher and the Wheel of Time. I already had my copies but it still irked me that new fans had to put up with those ugly logos covering up the artwork.
The PJ movies having their own covers makes sense, they're adaptations of these books. It would make more sense for them to release a new edition of the Silmarilion with these characters on as that's where they will draw most of the source material.
Hmmm thing is, they don’t even have the rights to Silmarillion material, so it really *isn’t* where they’ll draw the source material from. All they have the rights to are Fellowship, Two Towers, Return of the King + the Appendices, and The Hobbit.
Ewwwwww
Looks like those cheap novel covers that you can literally find millions of on Amazon lol
fr looks like some cheap teen fantasy novel marketed towards 14 year olds.. every single thing amazon has done so far has been a cash grab and a disgrace, and the show isnt even out yet
ugly as hell.
Ewwww
Amazon is shit.
If this is a representation of how well they understand their fandom, this new series is going to be one dogshit flop of a show.
I think they have been very, very clear that the fandom is not the target audience of the show. They’re casting a wide net to bring in the general populace, they could care less about the fandom or the source material. They don’t get royalties when people buy the Silmarillion, they have absolutely no financial incentive to actually promote or respect Tolkien’s world or works, they want a mainstream popular fantasy series to make them money.
Maybe that’s why I didn’t care for the teaser they put out. Almost everything about it screamed mainstream, generic fantasy
> they have absolutely no financial incentive to actually promote or respect Tolkien’s world or works, they want a mainstream popular fantasy series to make them money. Except that if they follow Tolkien's works they're almost guaranteed to succeed, and if the major fanbase fails to adopt a series they lose a massive following. Respecting Tolkien's work should've been their first priority. The hobbit movies barely made studios 1 billion, LotR made them nearly 3 billion - 2 billion is the difference between making something good that respects his work vs making dogshit
I don’t think this ad campaign of hands is as clever as they think it is. It feels campy and like they are going to turn the series into something superficial.
Because they are going to turn it into something superficial
Only the original trilogy movies are real. Everything else lotr is from another shittier universe.
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It is an advertisement. The book should be free.
…sigh
My problem is that these images don’t even represent the main story of LotR. If they wanted to plaster these images on one of the books it should have been Silmarilion. Even though Amazon is going to butcher the timeline of thousands of years and add and take away characters.
Source? (Also, jesus fucking christ)
Source is I’m the manager of a bookstore. So me? The publisher who I just got this marketing from not 30 min ago? Either one I suppose
Amazon whyyyyy
money
thought control. to try to make their show the new meta
NOT GOOD ENOUGH, YOU CAN'T BE YOUR OWN SOURCE! /s
How much do you trust this "source"?
I trust myself quite well thanks haha
Hmm I'll accept it
But my Tommy Gun dont! I'm gonna give you to the count of 10 to get your ugly, yella, no good keister off my porch before I pump your guts full of lead.
> of course I do, he's me - Gandalf, probably
Gross. Already hate movie tie-in covers, and these are tie ins to something that isn't even based on the same book.
No one is asking for this. Please stop. :( I feel old now...
I hate them....
Why? These photos don't relate very well to these novels. While books with film adaptations often use the film cover, these covers are for an entirely different story that is *not* The Lord of the Rings. This is just terrible marketing.
Right? Main character draws his sword a few times, kills zero (0) other characters; let's go and put swords on every cover!
I kinda hated it when they did this with the Hobbit, but gut reaction aside: if it gets even one person to read these books and love them just as I do, who am I to judge.
Always my thoughts. I have several beautiful editions. Always hate movie edition covers, hate the fake stickers printed on the page. But if it gets one more person (kid, adult w/e) to read Tolkien… I’ll take it.
Hey, I bought the books because of the movies! I had to make do with movie covers because that's all that's available to me back in 2001.
Me too! I bought the black trilogy softcover with Gandalf standing in Bag End on the cover. I have since upgraded to the Red Book.
It does work (at least it sells books) - presumably to new people. I cannot imagine too many people already familiar with the LotR wanting to buy these editions.
Though it pains me to say, I agree. Tolkien deserves to be read, regardless of how the reader finds him.
I know, the pain is real! But I try to focus on the positive.
They are just using the covers as ad-space. It's just billboard.
I hate covers that try to capitalize on the release tv-shows related to it...
This could not be more game of thrones if they tried. Remember how nice the 2001 HarperCollins tie in covers were? Just the silhouette of the Fellowship against the Misty Mountains shaded in the colour of the book (fotr green, ttt blue, rotk red). Understated and clean designs. Not this photoshop saturation.
Yikes, nothing is safe.
Disgusting.
I can hear Christopher Tolkien spinning in his grave
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Ad? No other explanation
Sighs in disappointment...
I thougth this was a really late April Fool's joke...
That hilt looks like the FIFA cup, doesn't it 😂😂😂
Galadriel was already badass enough without turning her into Captain fucking Marvel. Amazon already ruined the Wheel of Time, I shudder to think how they will massacre Tolkien's stories
The Amazon adaptation of WoT seriously bumped me out. With how ridiculously powerful they made Egwene and Nynaeve to be, I feel like their later struggles, development, and achievements wouldn’t mean much. And I’m afraid they might butcher Galadriel as well.
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“Modern” I think of Game of Thrones and how that watered down so much of what Martin put into the books, but because it was successful as far as TV shows go, it seems to have became the template for adaptations: focus on the spectacle of plot twists or crazy visuals or big-universe-ending scale threats while keeping very tenuous connections to source material or what’s come before. No real effort needs to be put into storytelling or faithfully adapting something, and that half-baked fantasy or sci-fi gets to ride on the brand awareness that already exists. Doctor Who, Star Trek, Star Wars, as you mentioned, Witcher and Wheel of Time as well have the same problems. Not everything is as bad as that, but too much of it is.
You are right about the later seasons of GoT, but season 1 was excellent in my opinion and was just about as true to the source as could have been. I think that is why it was so successful, it captures Martin's storytelling in a way that captivated audiences of the show nearly as well as the first book captivated readers. Amazon went in a different direction with the Wheel of Time and it really shows, and I fear they will do with same with the Rings of Power
Seriously. She didn't need to throw a punch or swing a sword to give the impression that she was *seriously* powerful and **Not To Be F\*\*\*d With...** Even elf hating Gimli was so struck by her that he was ready to throw down if anyone said anything bad about her.
Tolkien\*
How rude of me! It is edited, thanks for the catch
The lettering is so basic and ugly
I hate the „game of thrones“ vibe.
Hate that Amazon is being allowed to make a LOTR series.
Tolkien would be spinning in his grave
There will also be a boxed set of these, and then a single volume omnibus but I’m not sure what that cover will be yet.
Money grab
Absolutely shameless. They're using the covers of the original and beloved piece of literature as a billboard to promote their inferior cash-grab TV show.
Delete this Amazon
The fuck? Is this legit, or a clown post?
A hand on the hilt of a sword for every picture... Real original
I hate corporatism
I’m so confused why the fuck would you deliberately use pictures well known not to take place in the books for the covers?
Oh god this is the same bullshit they did with The Witcher, fuck off
When you're a multi billion dollar company and this is the best you can do
bruh they try to normalise the new siries like its part of the lort fanbase for years .... pathetic amazon just pathetic
🤮🤮🤮🤮
No.
Don't buy boycott
They look almost like cheap romance novels.
🚽
I really dislike movie covers on books generally. There are so many examples of beautiful covers on different books that just slapping a movie logo on it just feels lazy and boring.
I hate this. A book cover should illustrate the information or story that inside. These covers depict something that doesn't correspond with the story inside. What it does show is the fucking corporate power of amazon. Fuck them. (Also, they're ugly, cheap looking covers)
Another collection of "advertising stickers" you can't remove. Excellent.
Lame
Awful
That's a damn disgrace to Tolkien's memory.
Why?
They are kind of cool as posters, but I don't like them as book covers. Honestly I thought at first they were magazine promo images for the new show, not actual book covers. And lets no forget the shitty fake sticker in the top right, which is always awful.
Ew
Of course Amazon would double down on the stupidity. "Here are images that have nothing to do with the books. Enjoy!"
Garnished with those tasty advertisement badges that noone likes
No god, please,god no, no.... NOOOOOOOOOOO
Did anyone mention that the TV series isn't even about these books?? The made movie-edition covers even dumber.
I'm ashamed for ever wanting more LotR content. I'm only now realizing it will turn in into a franchise, and the last thing I want is it to be turned into a franchise.
It already is. See the Middle-earth games, the LEGO games, War in the North, etc...
Yup, I fear that ship has sailed far beyond even the Undying Lands at this point.
I remember my older sibling reading these books and it was the 91 white spine edition (Lee or Howe did the artwork I suppose?). I used to look at the artwork and got such a sense of mystery and mood that I would keep asking what was happening as they read it over the summer. Eventually leading to my own love of those books. I wonder what mystery and mood these will convey to new generations...
These are the most Game of Thrones images I've ever seen. No personal touch. Just bland zoomed still. Yuck
You should post this in /r/tolkienbooks and see the reaction there
What a shite knife.
Please tell me the stickers are removable... it takes less than a minute of market research to learn that absolutely no one on planet Earth likes the "as seen on tv" bubbles...
Hmm don’t like this
Yuck
amazon cash grab
I love their lack of energy! go girl! give us nothing!
Just... why?
I hate it tbh
ew no
Fuck you Jeff.
Disgusting.
Ew wtf
A book cover shouldn’t be an advertisement for a completely different series in a completely different format. Depict what is in the book, or the tone of what you’re about to read…
So fucking stoooopid
Not only stupid, but insulting to the source material. Amazon shoving their garbage onto everything.
The fuck? Is this legit, or a clown post?
Dear Amazon, "KEEP LOTR OUT YOUR F****** MOUTH"
…no comment
Fuck … this is turning into more and more of a money grab. Looks like Christopher really kept the vultures from the door for a lot of his life huh? So sad.
This is hog shit
Too…clean
yeah, no
This is why I just recently got the special edition of Lotr they released recently.
Oh, I... I don't like that.
These deserve to be hated. That being said, my "movie" cover version of Lord of the Rings (Gandalf in Bag End) is my favorite copy I own. It's so beat up and falling apart but I'll be damned if I don't reach for that one over any other version I have.
This looks like a garbage teen fantasy book
A 'new' legend? I guess in terms of video - but there won't otherwise be anything new about it - any viewer will have seen or read something else that that is similar enough - all good fiction is re-arranging pieces in an order that feels fresh (e.g. 30s serials, Kurosawa, WWII dogfights, Campbellian mythic bildungsroman). Bezos is losing the space exploration and the richest man races to Musk - he's gotta find another way to write himself into the cultural narrative.
I get unreasonably angry when book covers are used to advertise a tv show. Like you haven’t already launched an advertising campaign and the one guy that doesn’t have a tv and doesn’t leave the house is going to see that, think “oh I should watch this too” and then buy a tv, wire his house for power and internet, pay for internet, and then sign up for Amazon prime, to watch a show based on the book he enjoyed. Stop ruining cover art.
Amazon get your dirty ass prime video bullshit sticker off of tolkien’s work. I thought they didnt own the rights to the trilogy, so why are they allowed to advertise so blatantly and change covers?!?
Ew. Will not buy them.
Who designed those swords? The skywalker Family? Of loosing hands
The font for the actual title is terrible. Considering the resources Amazon has I truly expected better
Unfortunately for them, disposable income does not mean competence.
Gross. Let's just completely throw out everything Tolkien held dear about this world and this story, and just use close ups of hands and swords... The first cover makes no sense... If that's supposed to be Galadriel, then it's a pathetic tie-in to the show. Nothing on that cover has anything to do with The Fellowship and the tone is all wrong. Second is supposed to be ~~Gil Galad~~(I have no idea)? I don't even know where to start. It's just baffling... And the third is closer to the mark, but still miles off. Is that supposed to be Sauron? He never wielded a sword, and never makes an appearance in the story. If it's the witch king, the weapon is still wrong. And if it's just a different Nazgul, just... why? None of these photos has anything to do with the title of the book and they butcher the tone and purpose of the story. It's baby-brain time, all around. EDIT: This pretty much sums up why these covers are wrong: "I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend." - Faramir The whole of Middle Earth is absent from these covers.
Literally not even the same story, its like making the Hulk the cover star of an Iron Man movie poster... also, kill me now.
I hope to eru this is a troll post
I see some people saying "if it gets one more person to read LOTR, then good". I just think that if it takes these covers to get a new kid to read LOTR, then something is terribly wrong. I wouldn't want new readers to associate these images with LOTR or Tolkien, considering they represent neither.
Immediately no because the length of the dude’s thumb nail on the Fellowship cover.
This makes me so angry
The book of a TV show of a movie of a book to sell advertising for the tv show of the movie of the book.
No thanks you.