Book review - 'The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - Visual Companion ' by Jude Fisher

Rating: 3/5 stars

Plot:

"The second epic instalment of Peter Jackson’s trilogy The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug will see The Company of Thorin Oakenshield encounter even greater perils in their quest to claim their long-forgotten gold.

After setting out from the safety of Bag End, Bilbo Baggins has journeyed through Middle-earth with his fourteen companions, fighting through fire, Wargs, Goblins and even escaping the creature known simply as Gollum.

Introduced by Richard Armitage, who plays Thorin Oakenshield, and with over 100 rich illustrations, the Visual Companion is the perfect guide to the Company’s passage to Erebor and the Dragon that awaits them…"

-from 'The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - Visual Companion' on Goodreads

Review:

Last Christmas my mother bought me the visual guide for the first Hobbit film and this year she bought me the second one. I wasn’t exactly surprised!

This book, like its predecessor consists of pictures from the film, arranged by theme, and descriptive text about that theme. A lot of the text was repetitive and very similar to the first book and basically recapped things learned in the first film. I guess one would expect that from something that is supposed to tie in with the films and therefore I’m not complaining. We also meet new characters from the second film, and new places too. I’m not really qualified to comment on how repetitive these bits are as I haven’t actually seen film two and will probably have to wait for it on DVD – yes I’m sad too. I feel that the ‘new character’ pages read a bit like a teaser trailer for the film which was quite nice if a little cheesy.

The pictures are, as the title suggests, undoubtedly the focus of this book. The images are a mixture of promotional photographs and stills from the film. I must admit that I wasn’t really all that impressed by the images used or by the quality of the book’s layout. It’s been a while since I looked at the first book (and it’s not with me now) but I feel that there’s a decline in quality here which is a real shame.

All that said, I’m pleased I have the book. I think it’s a sweet little thing, a quick dip in and out read, and worth buying if you’re a fan of Tolkien or of the Hobbit films. It’s not amazing but it’s good enough.

This book's on quite a lot of offers at the moment so it might be worth you looking around if you want to buy it. However, amazon, as always, has it for sale if you click here!