Got mine yesterday. I've read quite a bit of it.
First of all it IS gorgeous. I still think SAS is the best looking RPG I've ever bought, but LotR certainly is a close second place. There are definitely some spoiler pics in it too...well not exactly spoiler's buit pics of either stuff in The Two Towers, or stuff that was cut from FotR. There's a lot of battle scene stills where you can really see the detail of weapons and armor....it's amazing when you can see a still shot like that, and see it up close. also the book is filled with quotes from the books (not the movie) at appropriate places which admittedly leave a bit less room for game stuff, but ultimately enhance the book so it doesn't seem like a technical manual. Very cool.
Mechanics wise, CODA is VERY similar to D20. In fact at least on paper, I prefer it to D20. It's the "D20 Lite" some of us have been wanting. Combat is slightly different in that you can parry or dodge, but overall it is a simpler system. It's not D20 or Gurps and on the other spectrum it''s not as free form as BESM or HeroWars. I'd say it's just a bit more complex than CoC (BRP version).
I'm sure many fo you want details on the Magic system..and that's the part I just skimmed..sorry...The system does seem like the best system out there for Tolkien. Very subtle..but powerful if need be. Sorcery (evil magic ala Saruman/Sauron) is discussed,as is corruption from improper use of magic, and the spells have some cool names that make them seem less like game mechanics (like Exalted).
There's a very cool writeup on the geography of middle earth...not quite enoug material IMO if you are a new GM who is not terribly familiar with Middle Earth, but it's a decent start. also there are some great writeups on keeping the Tolkien Feel in the game, both as a player and as a GM. And I was surprised to see that there is alot of references and a "push" to run a 4th age campaign. Honestly I never thought I'd like running a 4th age game, but now I'm very interested.
The character sheet is very poor (the boxes are way to small to write in), and honestly the book doesn't seem like it's 300+ pages..It seems small. I was also dissapointed that there was no introductory adventure in the book, which IMO is a neccessity for any core rulebook that is meant to "stand alone". However, there are several hooks and adventure seeds so all is not lost, but I would have loved to see something along the lines of ICE's Inn at the Last bridge (in TA1640 what the Prancing Pony was named) and Trollshaws adventure. There are also a few suggestions for running a campaign in the timeline that ICE decided to focus on.
I also think for the "D20 Only" folks out there..they should find things fairly portable and easy to convert...
Overall an A- in my book.