LOTR Locations GuideBook Reviewed - Tehanu @ 19:01 PST
Ian Brodie's LOTR Locations Guidebook has topped the bestseller list in New Zealand and gone into its third reprint in two weeks, and now I've got a copy in front of me it's not hard to see why. It provides you with everything you'd need to follow in the footsteps of the film crews. You get maps and directions how to get to each location - some of them pinpointed using GPS coordinates given by one of the Directors of Photography, so you can get the same viewpoint as certain shots in the film. The book is lavishly filled with photos of the scenery as it is now - some by Viggo Mortensen and Alan Lee - which are placed next to film stills taken in the same place. As well as that, there's a smorgasbord of tasty little snippets of information about the areas you'll be travelling through and all the other things there are to enjoy there, such as good restaurants, hot springs, wineries, adventure sports and so on. Then there are also the little tidbits about incidents that happened during filming, quotes and opinions from Peter Jackson, the cast and crew. This little book packs in all the information any Tolkien fan would need in order to have a very enjoyable time in New Zealand.

If I have a quibble, it's that a foreign traveller to New Zealand might have trouble zeroing in on what area is being discussed on each page, as the places used for reference assume a familiarity with the country that a non-native would not have. But armed with any commonly-available NZ touring roadmap they would soon match up the placenames to the locations. After all, LOTR fans aren't generally fools. It's of help to note that the locations are discussed in geographical order from north to south, if one is searching for them on a map. The book also provides useful website addresses for finding out more about each place. At the end there is a suggested tour itinerary.

It can be ordered from LOTR Locations.com