Cultured Travel Guide Books - The Lord of the Rings Location Guidebook (Lord of the Rings) |
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List Price: $15.95
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 791
EAN: 9781869504915
ISBN: 1869504917
Label: HarperCollinsPublishers PTY Limited
Manufacturer: HarperCollinsPublishers PTY Limited
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 128
Publication Date: 2003-12-01
Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers PTY Limited
Studio: HarperCollinsPublishers PTY Limited |
| Spotlight Customer Reviews: |
Customer Rating:  
Summary: Impractical and Vague
Comment: I have been traveling around New Zealand for 5 months and a friend and I took this book with us on a road trip around the South Island. It was a sore disappointment.
The directions in the book are horribly vague, sometimes to the point of nonsensical. Using "a repaired fence" is a poor idea of a landmark, as 4 years out after the publication of the guide the fence is no longer there. Be prepared for very unclear directions that refer to such movable items as "park benches" and "lone bathrooms" or "a fallen log" (in the woods? who would have imagined!)
Additionally, I was really startled to discover that only by comparing this book to the earlier version did some information become clear. There are bits of information in each that are not synthesized across both, so only by stopping into a bookstore briefly to consult the earlier guide did we discover that several of the sites we had intended to visit were not accessible to the public -- handy information to include in the second guide.
This guide requires a LOT of legwork by the reader. (Perhaps only by the GPS coordinates do the directions become clear, I didn't try.) After doing a lot of independent research and consulting several maps and local tourist information sites did we finally find a majority of the sites. Very very poor organization and information. While this book and its predecessor are the only detailed guides published for those searching the Lord of the Rings sites, they still require close study and a lot of external work.
Above all, what the book is lacking is clear direction and a good editor. The organization is very confused so that stories of being on the set are mixed with recommendations for non-LotR related tours and good wineries for lunch breaks, on top of the sub-par directions. While this gave a great sense of the author's enjoyment of the research process, it really doesn't add to clarifying the purpose of the book as a Location Guidebook.
A poor book with very little method to its madness: it's haphazard, ambiguous, and ultimately frustrating to put to use. I HIGHLY recommend that no one rely on this book as their sole guide to finding locations.
(I also find it underhanded and shady that the author reviewed his own book on Amazon. Given that the information in his head didn't translate wholly to the page, a five-star review might only be applicable from the same.)
Customer Rating:
Summary: Doing is better than reading
Comment: I purchased this book after visiting New Zealand. Specifically, the area where Rohan was set up. I would not have bought this book otherwise, but it became a nice companion when i wanted to remember the lay of the land and the challenges one only experiences in New Zealand. To get to this place, one must walk from a road, across a cow field, through 3 rivers (ice cold and too wide to jump, mind). So for me it was worth it. If you don't have an unusual love for the films or another big reason to get this book, you're probably wasting your money.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Nice, concise picture book
Comment: I bought this while in New Zealand, in Mt Cook Village.
Though My wife and I hadn't planned a "Lord of the Rings Tour", we did enjoy noting when our current stop was used as filming location.
I sympathize with both Mr Brodie and the reviewers wanting more maps.
While it may not have been his intent, it is called a "guidebook", and even a casual reader like myself would have appreciated more maps. But it doesn't detract from the fact that this is a fun book, with lots of vignettes and pictures.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Brilliant!
Comment: What a blast. We took the original edition on our tour two years ago and will be taking the extended edition this year. We also took a GPS with us and called our tour, "GPS to Mordor: there and back again," and dutifully listed the references we achieved in our trip diaries. Through unseasonal sleet and floods and snow we had more fun than anyone deserves hunting the references and squinting at the photos. "It's this tree. No No. It's that one." We went places we would never have dreamed of going otherwise, met fantastic people and saw astonishing country given a specific quality of discovery by finding the associations. Travels by quotation: "We're going to Rivendell to see the elves," was a particular triumph. The additional trivia of filming and background simply added pleasure to the reading at night while checking the next day's itinerary. Without being a textbook, we certainly found it got us where we wanted to go as close as we needed to get there (except for the parts of NZ that were under water at the time). Think of it as an invitation to get out of the house and go find your own adventures.
Customer Rating:
Summary: How I Found This Guidebook Useful
Comment: I've been on two trips to New Zealand and used the first guidebook on the first trip and the revised edition (after Two Towers) on the second trip. The revised edition was much improved over the original one. I visited probably 80%+ of the sites in the book between the two trips. The guidebooks give a lot of interesting trivia about filming LOTR and can certainly help you decide what to visit, how accessible it is and how to plan a route. As all have stated, the problem is that the directions get you sort of there, within a hundred meters if you're lucky, and the pictures are marginally helpful. On the second trip I brought a portable DVD player with the LOTR DVDs and I found the relevant scene in the film while I was at the location, so I could make a positive identification and not have to wonder if I was at the right rock or tree. It was particularly useful at Mavora Lakes, Poolburn and Whakapapa, for example, where so much of the scenery looks the same throughout the whole site. Otherwise, without the DVD, about the only thing to do when you get to Whakapapa using the guidebook is to just look around and know that it was used for the Mordor locations. With the DVD you can identify the exact spot where the opening title for Two Towers was filmed, among other venues. If you don't want to drag a DVD player with you, another option I would recommend is to print out screen caps from the films of those locations you really want to identify and take along a notebook filled with them. Either option is a must for identifying, for example, the Legolas rock at Deer Park Heights, particularly since the rock was flipped 180 in the film. Ian's book is a good start, but its utility will vary for each person depending on just how precise you want to be in saying "I was there."
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| Editorial Reviews: |
Since the first screening of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring in 2001, New Zealand has become the embodiment of "Middle-earth" to millions of moviegoers the world over. This definitive guidebook showcases the principal movie-set locations around New Zealand as seen in all three films. Ian Brodie's guide enables fans of Peter Jackson's cinematic masterpiece to experience their own unique insight into the magic and complexity of Middle-earth. Produced with the full cooperation of New Line Productions, Inc., he presents a comprehensive review of the movie locations, useful touring information including accommodation, food and entertainment suggestions, interviews with key cast and crew, and a foreword written by Peter Jackson.
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