Having previously read Gary Russell's the Art of the Fellowship of the Ring and knowing that there are two companion volumes which focus on the second and third films in the trilogy I expected this fourth art of volume to be a sort of mashup of all three books and to contain much of the same content. Though I would have been happy to revisit some of the same contents, I was pleased to find that instead this book was meant to be an expansion and contain a mixed collection of a whole bunch of the artwork that didn't make it into the previous three books. Normally I prefer these types of books to focus on one subject (one movie in this case), but since the story of the Lord of the Rings is one long epic it is actually more useful to see the full range of design work produced over the development of the three films. Russell does organize the presentation of the artwork logically, though, focusing first on the overall visual effects team before featuring the two principle conceptual artists (Alan Lee and John Howe), and finally filling the rest of the book with the communal designs and efforts created by the Weta Workshop. This progression made the story of the creation of the films really come to life, as Russell and the artists discuss how the project evolved through the art design process and how their personal interactions with Tolkien's work shaped their vision. The epic story of the Lord of the Rings in movie form would have been nothing without careful treatment of the visuals, so I am glad that the incredibly hard work of the many artists who worked on this project is featured to wonderfully in Garyh Russell's books. ( )

Compilation of the previews books (1 for each movie).
Terrific artwork. Any fan of the movie will love it. ( )

Awsome pictures and text.