One of the benefits of buying tangible books over the digital editions is some of the artistry that goes into designing the book covers. One fine example of this are the possible new Chinese variants of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
These amazing covers were designed by artist Jian Guo and are part of a competition held by the publisher WenJing Publishing. The company has been soliciting entries for the past year for the upcoming re-release of the Chinese version of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The original design for the books featured unimaginative covers with images directly ripped from the Peter Jackson movies.
Overall these book covers feature Chinese characters and lovely, monochromatic illustrations that draw on many of the design elements of Tolkien’s original paintings for the trilogy’s covers, elaborating on the iconic ring and towers with intricate Asian lines and flourishes. If you look closely there is a noticeable stained glass motif that permeates across all three book covers.
In the above image you can see The Fellowship of the Ring in green, The Two Towers in red, and The Return of the King in blue.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
