I’m pleased to finally release information of our upcoming pre-order for N.K. Jemisin’s “The Fifth Season”, the Hugo award winning first instalment of The Broken Earth Trilogy.
It’s been an absolute pleasure to work on since securing the licence earlier this year. It’s an incredible debut fantasy novel that feels just as Sci-Fi as it does Fantasy.
There are some brilliant themes running through the series that really inspired the prototype bindings below, and this will be referred to as the Amathyst edition, due to the prominence of the Amathyst Obelisk in the first book. Books two and three will be themed around Sapphire and Onyx respectively (again, due to the featured Obelisk’s).
I will also be updating the images over the next few weeks as I have recently secured some better equipment, but these should give you more than enough idea of how they’ll look.
Without further ado, The Fifth Season:
Art
The incredible John Anthony Di Giovanni is the illustrator on this book (and each in the series) and will be producing 10 full colour images for this edition. John’s painted realism works so well in both Fantasy and Sci-Fi and was the perfect match for the series.
John will be completing two landscape images (Dustjacket and Endpapers) as well as 8 further tipped in portrait pieces.
Both myself and N.K. Jemisin are thrilled with the dustjacket depicting Essun and Tonkee first arriving at Castrima-Under, the town carved from a Geode. I can’t wait to see the rest of the imagery from John as we progress through the year.
This isn’t quite the final image, but it certainly gives you an idea of of the picture and the concept behind it. John is a genius!
Info
There will be four editions in total for this series, and the pre-order date is Sunday 15th of January, 8pm GMT.
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Standard Edition – 500 copies
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Numbered Edition – 200 copies (150 for rights holders, 50 extra copies for sale)
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Lettered Edition – 26 copies
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Roman Numeral Edition – 5 copies
The lettered and numbered rights holders will be contacted from today to purchase their number/letter, and any copies not redeemed will be made available on the pre-order date.
All of the Standard Edition’s will be available on pre-order date, as will the 50 extra copies of the numbered edition (T1 rights only) and any numbered/lettered editions not taken up by rights holders. Numbered editions with T1 and T2 rights will be assigned at random.
I will be shipping these books myself so this should reduce the cost of delivery somewhat – the pricing is as below:
Numbered/Standard
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UK – £20
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US/CAN – £45
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Europe – £40
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Asia/Rest of World – £50
Lettered
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UK – £30
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US/CAN – £55
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Europe – £45
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Asia/Rest of World – £60
Standard Edition
Limited to 500 copies, the Standard Edition is quarter-bound in marbled cloth by Freya Scott of Paperwilds with boards covered in cream paper and stamped in two colours. The slipcase is covered in purple buckram cloth for durability and stamped once with gold foil.
This edition is the only edition that comes with John Anthony Di Giovanni’s Dustjacket image, and also comes with illustrated endpapers and 8 full colour plates tipped within the book.
Printed on Munken Rough Cream 120gsm by Nomad Letterpress of Cheltenham and signed by both Author and Artist.
Numbered Edition
Limited to 200 copies, the Numbered Edition is hand-bound in full cream goatskin with large blind-stamped title design on front and back covers. The rounded spine has had two passes of foil stamping and has an amethyst embedded within. Housed in a curved slipcase covered in marbled cloth by Freya Scott of Paperwilds, there are also two labels affixed to slipcase spine.
This edition also comes with illustrated endpapers and 8 full colour plates tipped within the book.
Printed on Munken Rough Cream 120gsm by Nomad Letterpress of Cheltenham and signed by both Author and Artist.
Lettered Edition
Limited to 26 copies, the Lettered Edition comes with a custom hand-made wooden box by expert box maker Peter Canham. The cover has a unique purple piece of agate embedded within the wood as has been laser etched with the author and title.
The lettering on the spine has been carved in and hand aged by Peter, with a piece of amethyst cut into the block. Inside, the box has been lined in finest purple suedel with a ribbon for retrieving the book.
The book inside is handbound of the finest harmattan black leather and has a unique amethyst crystal shard embedded in the cover, with wrap around foil stamping. The boards are 6mm and chamfered, and the book is gilded gold across all three edges. Inside the book there are marbled endpapers (by the amazing Freya Scott) and a further 9 tipped in colour plates.
Printed on Magnani Mouldmade Pescia 130gsm by Nomad Letterpress of Cheltenham and signed by both Author and Artist.
A last note...
I’m really pleased how these editions have turned out and I hope you are too. It’s been an absolute pleasure to work with N.K. Jemisin and John Anthony Di Giovanni on this production and I’ve worked hard to try and keep these prices within reason (despite the increase of costs on all editions).
I will be releasing information regarding the Roman Numeral Edition at a later date – I’m hoping early Feb.
Thanks again for your support and I hope you like my efforts.
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