The Broken Binding Fantasy Sub #4: April-May-June 2024
It’s been a while since I updated on my Fantasy subscription with The Broken Binding (TBB).
So far I’ve received three series through this subscription, two as tier 2 and one as tier 1, which is standard signed by the author with possible extras such as artwork. My fourth series became the first series that I had already heard of before and of which I even have the first book in paperback in my TBR bookcase.
The series in question is Gentleman Bastards by Scott Lynch, not a trilogy, but a series of which only three books have been published.
The reason I haven’t given an update on this series for so long is because despite the fact that the last book was scheduled for June, I didn’t actually get my final copy until September.
The book had some damage to the dust jacket and I had asked if they could send me a new one. They agreed, but it would be a bit of a wait. In bewteen, customs also gave me some trouble, which ultimately resulted in a three-month wait.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t the only book in this set that had damage. Book two also showed signs of a bumpy journey, resulting in a small dent in the middle of the book. After back and forth with TBB about this damage, I decided not to ask for a new book, but to accept a partial refund.
So yes, despite the fact that TBB is one of the book boxes that packs their books the best (gift wrapping AND bubble wrap AND honeycomb paper), things can still go wrong. I think in this case it was damage in their warehouse itself, before packing, combined with a book design that turned out to be quite fragile.
Anyway, that being said, 5 stars for the customer service at The Broken Binding, who are always quick to respond and always willing to provide a partial refund or a replacement copy in case of damage. So let me finally get to the actual unpacking and presentation of this series of books!
As always, the books came in their signature packaging style with a matching sticker and a matching bookmark.
The original publication of this series never got a hardback print and was only distributed as a paperback. Therefore, The Broken Binding decided to leave the recognizable paperback covers unchanged and use the same cover design for the dust jackets of their hardback editions.
As mentioned, the jacket of my third book got slightly damaged. Not much, but considering the price tag of this subscription, it was still a bit of a bummer. After removing the cover, I could also see the damage on the spine of the hardcover, which is why I initially decided to request a replacement. For this TBB required me to destroy the book and provide photographic evidence of this before they would send me a new book. I ultimately found this a bit of a waste, so I asked if they could not just send me a new dust jacket, to which they agreed. When I finally received the replacement after three months, it turned out that they had simply sent me a completely new book. Now I had expected this to be an unnumbered and unsigned copy, but no, it was the complete package. Crazy.
Under the jackets, each book has a unique gold foil print on both the front and back, designed by @caterina_paints. A very distinct style I’m actually not entirely sold on. I think the illustration itself is really cool, but I think it’s mainly the gold foil that I find less fitting. Maybe it would have been better if they had chosen the green-red-blue colours they assigned to the books instead?
I noticed the damage on book two only when I removed the dust jacket. It is only visible in a certain angle, but mostly it’s by touch the dent on the front cover is noticeable. But as I said, I got a compensation for this.
It’s clear though that this gold foil printing is very susceptible to scratching, peeling and staining. Everytime I look at it, I notice a new set of scrapes.
So in theory it is a cool idea, but it seems the realisation is rather difficult to achieve without imperfections.
The book blocks were given very striking and detailed illustrations all around, also by @caterina_paints.
The colours are very bright, so if they had replaced the gold foil with these colours it might have looked a bit kitschy? Hard to say. I think that maybe a cloth cover in green-red-blue with the card game-like illustration in foil on it would have been nicer. On the other hand, the goldfoil on black paper gives off a very uniform whole over the three books.
Each endpaper came with a beautiful and unique illustration by @franvegasart.
Because I have a tier 1 subscription, each book is numbered and signed by the author.
In addition to the standard bookmarks, which are as always well thought out and executed, I also received a gorgeous art print by @jeffbrown_graphics from the city of Camorr, which definitely sparks my intrigue!
All in all, a well thought out design, with beautiful artwork by various talented artists. Unfortunately not without the problems in execution for those with an eye for detail, but which is not really noticeable at a glance.
Now I especially hope that I will find this series as good in terms of content as is claimed everywhere, because the hype and the love for these books is really big.
Cheers,
Charlotte
