Interesting Picture on reddit

Oh interesting. I’m not sure I like the titling styles, which keep switching locations, but I do like the motifs and little illustrations.

A quick search on Barnes and Nobel's website here in the states has the new covers up for all except "Shaping of Middle-earth" & "The Lost Road"

Oooh do keep us posted when more of these covers are unveiled. I imagine next they'd do the rest of The History of Middle-earth, as well as Beren and Luthien and The Fall of Gondolin. Those are the Middle-earth titles yet to appear in this style.

Gonna go ahead and say I'm a fan.

I like them as well. The font and placement kinda takes away from it, though I quite like the images themselves. Obviously Tolkien's not the artist (I believe the artist name is Michael James Bowman) though they do that Middle-earth / Tolkien feel to them.

It's about time that the US got their own (not a replication of something HarperCollins did first) nice editions. There's been lots of cheesy covers over the years for US paperbacks.

I don't seem to mind the font and title designs; at the risk of disparaging myself, it somehow feels very American.

To echo your second point, insurrbution, I'm glad they've decided to branch out from Tolkien's artwork, albeit not too far out. The Professor is sadly no longer around to produce original pieces, and seeing the same few designs on every subsequent re-release risks getting a bit stale. There are plenty of competent, passionate artists capable of riffing in the spirit of Tolkien's art, and I think these are a fine example of that. After all, if you're in the mood for a new release, why not get something you've never seen before (within the bounds of good taste, of course)?

Ballantine/Del Rey/Random House/Penguin (man, that's a mouthful - officially they are "Penguin Random House" now, with the various imprint names under that umbrella) have confirmed to me that the twelve pictured books above are "for the moment" the only Tolkien paperbacks getting this new cover design treatment.

They are not getting new ISBNs or restarting the impression numbers due to the cover refresh, so there's no guarantee you will get the new or old cover style from online retailers who may be using stock photos.

• The Fellowship of the Ring - 9780345339706
  
• The Two Towers - 9780345339713
  
• The Return of the King - 9780345339737
  
• The Hobbit - 9780345339683
  
• The Silmarillion - 9780345325815
  
• Unfinished Tales - 9780345357113
  
• The Children of Húrin - 9780345518842
  
• The Book of Lost Tales 1 - 9780345375216
  
• The Book of Lost Tales 2 - 9780345375223
  
• The Lays of Beleriand - 9780345388186
  
• The Shaping of Middle-earth - 9780345400437
  
• The Lost Road and Other Writings - 9780345406859

Anyone think that Del Rey may give us a new boxset for these new HOME 1-5?