The Broken Binding Fantasy Sub #5: July-August-September 2024
At the end of May, before the end of the previous trilogy, The Broken Binding announced the next series for their Fantasy subscription that would cover the months of July, August and September.
This was The Green Bone Saga by Fonda Lee, a series I haven’t read yet, but that I obviously know, given its popularity.
The Green Bone clans of honorable jade-wearing warriors once protected the island from foreign invasion–but nowadays, in a bustling post-war metropolis full of fast cars and foreign money, Green Bone families like the Kauls are primarily involved in commerce, construction, and the everyday upkeep of the districts under their protection.
When the simmering tension between the Kauls and their greatest rivals erupts into open violence in the streets, the outcome of this clan war will determine the fate of all Green Bones and the future of Kekon itself.
I was very curious to see what The Broken Binding would do with their design and kept an eye on their Instagram for the first reveal, which followed a few weeks later.
And yes, there was a bit of a fuss, because the opinions were not unanimously positive. I also did not immediately like the mock-ups and hesitated for a moment whether I should skip the series. In the end, my FOMO won and I continued my subscription for the next three months.
Did the reality ultimately turn out better than the digital mock-ups?
As always, receiving packages from The Broken Binding is a real pleasure. Everything is very securely wrapped, so that the chance of damage during transport is minimal. And then, once you have removed all the packaging, you will find your book beautifully wrapped in their signature gold paper with black ribbon, decorated with a sticker matching the wrapped book and with a matching bookmark.
For this set, The Broken Binding commissioned completely new covers with unique illustrations by Randy Vargas (@vargasni). The illustrator is undoubtedly extremely talented, but when I saw these in mock-ups I wasn’t won over.
I’m not a fan of characters on the cover and while I would have loved this artwork on the endpapers, I find them a bit out of place on the covers. I also find them a bit bland and boring in colour, which makes the books themselves look a bit dull and not at all eye-catching, unlike the standard covers that have such bold colour choices.
Unfortunately, when I saw these in person, I remained of the same opinion. I like the illustrations themselves, but I don’t think they are appropriate designs for covers.
Under the cover, TBB went all out for the established green-red-blue colour scheme for this trilogy. This is probably why they went for gold foil in the previous series, because otherwise they would have done almost the same thing twice in a row.
By now this is a style I’m used to seeing in special editions, but one that I actually don’t get tired of. A coloured linen-like hardcover with a beautiful gold foil feels both cozy old-fashioned and luxurious.
I also think the designs are very successful here. Despite the different colours, these are clearly books from the same series, while each has its own unique design.
There was also a lot of disagreement online about the sprayed edges, and while I agreed that they didn’t seem to fit the covers, I did think their design was incredibly beautiful and I was very curious to see how it would look in real life.
And yes, wow! The stained glass window effect is really well done and also impressive how beautifully it continues over all the edges. Again, the fixed colour scheme was clearly followed for these illustrations, which fits in very nicely with the naked hardcovers.
Inside, each book has a unique illustration by Charis Loke (@charisloke) on the front. The same illustrator made a unique map for each endpaper at the back, corresponding to the world in the story. Something went wrong with the printer for the first book, which The Broken Binding solved by making a fold-out map. Best solution ever, in my opinion.
And yes, the fixed colour scheme of green-red-blue was also prominently chosen for these inside illustrations. Really, everything about the designs screams green-red-blue, which makes the covers that lack any form of these colours seem even more out of place to me.
Furthermore, my tier 1 set comes with an author’s signature in each book and each book is the 325th to roll off the printer.
As you could see in the package photo, each book also came with its own bookmarks. And I’m going to sound like a broken record, but yeeeeees, green-red-blue here too!
When I have the three books together, my general impressions about the covers remain the same. The illustrations are beautiful, but much too colourless for a cover, especially when you compare them to the sprayed edges. The contrast is really jarring and the two do not fit together at all.
Without the jackets, the entire design falls together like a puzzle. It really feels like the covers were designed for a different set than this one, because it really feels like two very different ideas that they threw together. Maybe they should have made the font on the covers in the bright green-red-blue colours? I don’t know if that would have made it all fit together better.
So my final verdict on this set is a bit of a between-the-two feeling.
On the one hand, I appreciate the uniqueness of these editions, but on the other hand, I can’t get over the disharmonious design of the dust jackets compared to everything else. Fortunately, they can be removed, so I’m actually considering whether I’ll just put these books on the bookshelf without their jackets.
Cheers,
Charlotte
