Herb Petro reviewed ''Angus McBride's Characters of Middle-earth
in White Wolf'' #25 (Feb./March, 1991), rating it a 2 out of 5 and stated that "This book is for those who revel in the glories of Middle-Earth, art enthusiasts who don't follow ICE's
MERP line,
MERP enthusiasts who don't have all the now out of print
MERP products bhut still would like to enjoy the cover art from those products, and even those who have these prints on the covers of their
MERP collection but would like to see the full paintings without the title and staples occluding some of the print. Even though this book is nearly totally useless as a game supplement, its value as a visual aid to certain important scenes makes it a welcome addition to my collection." In the August 1991 edition of
Dragon (Issue #172),
Allen Varney was a self-described fan of Angus McBride's art, calling him "my favorite of the legions of illustrators of J.R.R. Tolkien's works." Varney described this release as a "pristine book of fine art"; but gave a thumbs down for the "feeble gaming filler facing each painting." Varney advised readers to "Skip the game junk and frame these vivid visualizations." He also criticized the dearth of subjects taken from Tolkien's work, and the overabundance of "covers from all those [
MERP] supplements about Near
Harad, Far Harad, Really Far Boring Harad, and other backwaters that barely rate footnotes in
The Lord of the Rings." ==References==