Beautifully rendered maps of Middle Earth with detailed descriptions of the various places of Middle Earth however it lacks of organization in booklet makes search difficult.

Back when I first started gaming, like many people, I played D&D. One of my friends decided that they wanted to play in the world of Greyhawk. Being young and mostly supported by my parents I went out and bought the World of Greyhawk boxed set. Ripping off the plastic I opened it up and was disappointed to find this map and a thin booklet. Later on I took another look. The map was quite detailed and the book, an excellent Gazetteer of the world with perhaps more detail than the map showed. The combination made gaming in Greyhawk a much richer experience for me and for my friends.

I got the same feeling when I opened up Maps of Middle Earth: Okay.. we got some maps and a pamphlet. We got six maps this time (6x better than only one map) but still is this worth getting it?

The answer is yes. The maps are nicely detailed and drawn in colors and style that make you think of an ancient parchment map – rare to get and worth much to own. All of the important and many of the peripheral locations from the books and movies are marked on these maps. One can easily visualize where they are in the world of Middle Earth.

The booklet has good descriptions of each area telling the history and some of the current conditions in each part. There are also some very nice background illustrations presumably taken from movie shots included with these description. The problem with the booklet is that it is not well organized. It is roughly divided into sections of Middle Earth and then descriptions are given for locations within each section. But there is no order as to the sections or locations, no table of contents, and the index only serves to locate areas on the maps, not areas in the booklet. In other words, good luck finding the description of Durthang without a slightly prolonged search. My only other complaint is the nature of the beast. Decipher, in licensing Lord of the Rings from the Tolkien Estates and New Line Cinema, has no doubt spent a large amount of money and feels a need to promote these links. Therefore, we get a full page (which could have been used as an index or table of contents) telling us about renowned illustrator Daniel Reeve. While this may interesting to some, it doesn't really accomplish anything useful in the book. A nitpick I know, but that's me.

Overall, the maps and booklet would be useful to anyone running a campaign in Middle Earth, whether using a homegrown campaign, the now discontinued MERP, or Decipher's Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game. The maps themselves lend flavor (See!! He IS a good illustrator) to the game just by their artistic style and the descriptions would be useful if you can find what you are looking for. I recommend this product.