July 2025 – Production Update

July 2025 – Production Update
Well, July has been an absolute whirlwind! You guys really went nuts on the Assassin’s Apprentice public pre-order and set a new CK record of 3 minutes… Honestly, I never envisioned it selling out that quickly (even after upping the numbers!), so a huge thank you to everyone who bought one and sorry to anyone who missed out on the day.
The new pre-order method worked better than previous iterations, though as people noted, the Standard didn’t go live until just after 20:01 – this shouldn’t happen in future. But now it’s all said and done, I wanted to say how overwhelmed I am by the response to the release, it really makes this all worthwhile!
Other than the Assassin’s Apprentice release, it’s been a very busy month indeed and we’ve made great progress on most of our titles too. Legend is on the cusp of being shipped at the moment too which will be great to get out in the wild.
I’m also pleased to announce that I now have a Publishing Assistant called Fio Trethewey who started this week with me! Fio is full of beans and he is a huge sci-fi/fantasy nerd (like the best of us) and has experience working for a publisher as well as working on their own Dr Who productions/audiobooks, which is darned cool. So if you’re contracting the info@ email address then it’s likely Fio will be responding, so please let’s all be kind and welcoming to the newest member of team CK.
James MacNamara will be standing down from the Customer Service emails as Fio will be taking them on. Fio is also dealing with all rights transfers as well until the new website is live (one day…), so can I ask anyone who emails me personally to transfer rights to direct these requests to info@curiousking.co.uk so I can spend more time designing and producing the books you love!
Right, on to production updates:

Legend

We’re nearly there!!! The Standard Editions are very close to being finished, and the bindery has suggested the end of next week they’ll be ready for collection by our distributor but won’t know for sure until midway through next week. The Deluxe likely to follow mid-August and the Lettered the end of August. 
With that in mind we will be putting up some cancelled copies of the Standard Edition up for sale on:

Tuesday 29th of July at 20:00BST

To purchase when this goes live, then please sit on this link and refresh when it hits 20:00BST until they appear.
https://curious-king-books.myshopify.com/products/legend-standard-edition-copy-1?utm_source=copyToPasteBoard&utm_medium=product-links&utm_content=web
These will ship with main batch of Standards early August.
I’m brimming with excitement to see how these are received when they land on peoples doorsteps!

The Fall of Hyperion

We’ve finished the printing on The Fall Of Hyperion! Well I say we, I really mean Nomad Letterpress. Pat and Ellen have wrapped up the second colour of letterpress printing and it’s being picked up by Ludlow Bookbinders for the first stages of binding (namely the folding). 
Not only that, I’ve had all of the colour artwork handed in by Jaime Jones in the last month and the images are looking stunning. I’ve attached one below that we released on Instagram, and it’s pretty iconic (yes it’s a spoiler, but come on, it’s been decades…).
The only thing missing is the bookmark, which I have yet to design, but will get on that way before we’re ready to ship. I don’t have an estimate as to when this one will start shipping, but based on where it is in the process, I’d say October/November 2025.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Printing is imminent! We’re currently proofing the colour vignette’s to ensure they’re accurate to the paintings then the colours will start going onto the page in the next week or two. These sheets will then wing their way across to Hand & Eye for two-colour letterpress printing. 
It’s hard to say when these sheets will be finished, but if all goes to plan they should be at the bindery for October and ready for shipping Jan 2026. Again, this is based on current estimates and could well come forward, or most likely, backwards…
Mark Wing-Davey has signed the limitation pages and these are going across to Gary Gianni in the US for his John Hancock. It’s all coming together!

Last Argument of Kings

This one is motoring along considering we pre-ordered it earlier this year. Nomad Letterpress are currently running the second colour across the 60 (!!!) pages that require it, and this one is an absolute beast at 580 pages, our biggest book yet.
With this in mind it should only take a couple of weeks for this to hit the bindery ready for the final stage. We’ve also started to receive the colour artwork from Greg Manchess (after a press whom I will not name stole our slot!) and they’re looking incredible! Particularly enjoying the Logan vs Feared painting at the moment!
As mentioned previously we’re ahead of schedule on this one, but still expect it to ship this year. I’m confident with the other projects that need to be bound and the inevitable delays for various reasons the bindery will make some headway on this over the coming months. Still planned to ship Pre-Xmas and will keep you abreast of the situation each month.

The Martian

We’ve got our slot booked in with Hand & Eye Press later this year which is great news, and we also have everything else ready for binding (limitation pages, art etc). This one is being printed by Hand & Eye Press in London, and as soon as it’s done it will hit the bindery for the all important binding process.
Ludlow Bookbinders have the signing sheets too, so next time I’m down I’ll take a picture of them and upload it for everyone to see!
I expect this one to ship the first half of the year 2026, largely down to the binding schedule. It could be as early as Q1 2026, but again with the delays that often appear as if from nowhere, I’m being cautious on shipping dates.

Assassin's Apprentice

Well it sold, and it sold FAST! Which is just incredible really, so huge thanks to the buyers of this iconic book. I have laid out the interiors already and these are being proofed ready for Nomad Letterpress. I’m hoping this one gets in the print queue this year as I was told that is still likely. 
Once printed, this of course goes to the bindery for the binders to work their magic. Too hard to nail down an accurate date at the moment, but if we get it on the press this year then I can see it being delivered first quarter or first half of the year 2026, ideally earlier. But as you can tell from this update, we’ve got a lot of books going to the bindery over the next 6 months, so we’ll see!
A note for the Lettered owners, Robin Hobb has kindly agreed to hand-write a quote from the story on each limitation page to go with her signature. Each will be different of course!

The Obelisk Gate

It’s looking very likely we’ll be pre-ordering The Obelisk Gate in September this year as previously predicted. We can only apologise for the delay between books in The Broken Earth Trilogy but we made the decision to stick with our artist John Anthony di Giovanni as he did such an amazing job on the first book. He’s been held up with artwork on this project (and some of his others) but progress is being made now.
As with our other series that are partway through, owners of The Fifth Season have Series Rights and when the production is revealed they will have a week or so to take up their copies before any go up for a public pre-order.
The theme for this release is the Sapphire Edition and we’ve been tracking down stones to use on this book as we really can’t use ACTUAL sapphire’s as each book would cost an arm and a leg!
I’m really excited to carry this series on as I was pleased with how The Fifth Season turned out when they were shipped. The finished trilogy is going to look cool as hell when it’s finally done, that’s a promise!

Future Titles

We still have one more release planned for 2025 after The Obelisk Gate and it’s looking more and more like it will be Endymion! It’s not set in stone yet, largely to ensure The Fall of Hyperion ships out prior to a potential November release.
Something else could pip it to the post, a yet unannounced series. But we’re keeping this under wraps for now. The project in question is very far along in regard to the art, and by golly it’s looking good! Iconic in fact. 
We’ve also announced Mythago Wood for next year, and the preferred artist is just pulling together a test piece for the estate to seal the deal. There’s been an artist we’ve been keen to use on this since we floated the idea of producing this unbelievable piece of fantasy. Mythago is planned as a Standalone still, but who knows whether we’ll finish off the series if it is received well. We’re also conscious not to just work on series as I understand some collectors chafe at the idea of waiting a few years to finish them. In my opinion most of the best works in Sci-Fi and Fantasy are part of a series of some sort, and I’m not going to stop working on them.
Anything else? I had a good chat with a fantasy author recently which looks like it would be a good fit for CK, but this would be a couple of years down the road, so my lips are sealed on this one for now.
Oh, I also mentioned manga a while ago. Whilst we still have plans in this area, we’ve hit a few roadblocks with rights/licences (though I am undeterred with my original plan, it just might take a while). There is something else exciting in the works too, a diversion from Curious King and more accessible to most collectors. I’m frightfully enthusiastic about it, and we’re making some positive headway on licences for this project. 
That’s plenty for you lot I think. Until next month…
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