A Big Box Of Books

At least once a week, and often more frequently, a box of books shows up here at the ranch.

I am always as excited as a kid on Christmas, even when I know what’s in the box before I open it.

Sometimes, though, I have no idea what’s in the box, and then I open it and I am blown completely away. Ordering from some smaller presses often means “pay now, and get the book(s) sometime later” without the kind of rigorous scheduling you get from the major publishers. In practise this means that you can order things, and more-or-less forget they are coming until they show up, unheralded, and surprise you.

This happened recently when I got a box full of fancy-schmancy editions of some books I had ordered from Subterranean Press.

The content of the books is good stuff, and I wouldn’t buy a book at all–much less in the ooh-la-la edition–unless I wanted to read the contents of the book… but, this post isn’t really about the contents of the books. This is book production porn. If slipcases and bindings excite you, then you might like these pictures. If you want to talk about the stories, make a comment, and I’ll gladly do so–I’ve got a lot to say about the stories. But this post is me indulging my love of the physical objects.

The first thing in the box was my long-awaited copy of Subterranean‘s Jack Vance collection. Apparently SubPress switched manufacturers for their tray cases, which accounts for some of the “long” in that “long-awaited”, but looking at the finished product, I can’t fault them.

I am somewhat in love with the “Doc Marten” stitching around the traycase. The leather is nice, and the lettering is very nicely done, without the usual problems where the leather’s grain interferes with the lettering.

I am less sure about the little “belt”. I think I like it, but I’m still deciding.

Both the inner lid, and the entire tray itself, are lined with a very soft suede-type material, which feels very nice. The hinge is tight and very solid–I don’t know if you can tell from the image, but the hinge itself wraps around the tray, connecting the “lid” to the body of the tray in a very high quality way.

And, of course, the book itself looks lovely, with a beautiful cover:

Not pictured are the gorgeous dark blue full leather binding, or the thick, rich, embossed, light blue endpapers.

Or the signature of Jack Vance. Jack Vance touched this book!

This doesn’t make up for my stupid decision not the get in on the Vance Integral Project, but it does soothe the pain a little.

Next in the box was my previously mentioned copy of Charlie Stross‘ novella Missile Gap (read it free). For this smaller work, they went with a simple traycase, not the multi-colour stitched job. In keeping with the “Reds” theme of the story, the case is brilliant red:

Inside the tray, the same suede lining is present, and the hinge is still solid, even though it’s less heavy-duty than on the bigger volume. Here the lid is of a piece with the tray, and there is an inner leather strip that bridges the tray/lid reinforcing the hinge.

And, of course, the book itself has a gorgeous jacket.

Not pictured are the full leather binding (in the same red leather), or the endpapers with black and white artwork, or Stross’ signature.

However, just to tease my friend Matt, I will include a link to an image of the limitation statement. (Note that the design elements even here include the Soviet theme–these guys don’t miss a trick in their design work.)

The last thing in this particular box was my copy of Tad Williams‘ massive collection of short stories, essays, nonfiction, and etc., Rite. This one got the same fancy tray as the Vance collection, although this time with an icon embossed into the tray’s lid as well:

The construction of the case internally is the same as for the Vance book as well:

This one is bound in full leather, a rich chocolate leather, with absolutely beautiful green/brown/gold endpapers.

I pretty regularly will buy a limited edition if it’s by an author I like, and the material seems like it will appeal to me, but I don’t often spring for the over-the-top editions like these. I’ve probably got a dozen or so limiteds on orderI just checked, and the actual number is 19. Damn, that’s more than I thought. now from SubPress, but I don’t have any more editions like this coming (so far). So, having the three of these show up all at once (which I am sure is an artefact of the traycase manufacturer’s schedule) is quite a surprise, and not something that’s likely to be repeated for quite some time (at least).