Yeah, sounds like it's just a rehash / re-compilation of Christopher Tolkien's work. I'll pass.

Do you not think that Tolkien fans want this?

Of course many want this. Which is why this kind of cash-grab works in the first place.

So the Lord of the Rings was also a cash grab based on the success of the Hobbit? That's a strange idea

What’s funny is the publishers asked for another Hobbit, and Tolkien even started writing one (the early chapters have a more hobbity tone with thinking foxes, etc) but then went in a completely different direction and depth.

This is not aimed at fans. This is pure and simple scraping the very bottom of the barrell to try and pretend that there's a story somewhere to try and re-capture audiences.

"LotR and The Hobbit brought us billions, and fantasy genre is doing quite well, so why not strike iron while it's lukewarm"

Wouldn't be much of a cash-grab if nobody bought it, would it?

No but I don't think literally all products are "cash grabs". To me that implies a lack of care for the source material or anything besides money. As I asked the other commenter, do you also think that the Lord of the Rings was a cash grab riding off of the success of the Hobbit?

I don't get the comparison. This effort (by others' comments: a rearranging and editing of existing materials, with new illustrations?) with LOTR (a wholly original, although related, trilogy) gives me false from the areEqual() call.

There's a market. Fans will buy. Money is good. Some would say the repackaging is worth it. From an originality-perspective, others wouldn't -- still, more, considering its "timely" release.

If you are in that second camp, this is the very definition of a cash-grab.

> gives me false from the areEqual() call.

I can't talk to you seriously if you engage with me in a childish way