Another Annandale book coming up, which I initially missed on Black Library’s website. This one seems to be a first novel in a whole new series from the publisher, “Lords of the Space Marines”, and focuses on Mephiston, Chief Librarian of the Blood Angels.
Chief Librarian of the Blood Angels, Master of the Black Rage, Lord of Death... By these titles is Mephiston known to his brother Space Marines. But deep within Mephiston’s tortured heart lurks another, the spectre of who he used to be before his death and rebirth on the war-torn world of Armageddon. As Mephiston leads the Blood Angels into battle in the Pallavon system against the might of mankind’s archenemy, he must grapple with his inner daemons as well as those around him, as the ghost of Brother Calistarius, the man he once was, returns to haunt him.
In a move that will no doubt bother some people, this will only be available in this format for seven days, from January 25th to February 1st. The book is presented in a “red leather-effect slip case”, comes with an exclusive short story chapbook for Annandale’s previous Mephiston story, Eclipse of Hope, and also an artwork postcard. I must admit to not being bowled over by Eclipse – while I thought Annandale had done a great job of giving the Blood Angels their own voice, it didn’t quite work for me. Perhaps it will be different in Mephiston.
I considered getting this. Mephiston is one of my favourite characters in the lore and the Blood Angels among my favourite chapters.
ReplyDeleteBut I honestly cannot justify the price at all for myself. It's more than AED 200 for me. I totally get the idea behind doing hardback novellas, I really do, but this one crosses a line.
BL should understand that things are exclusive when they are rare, not when they come out every few months. We have that Yarrick novella coming up, another exclusive, but non-limited title coming up. There is going to be a HH limited novella by Nick Kyme later this year. That's three titles that we know of so far for 2013. There will undoubtedly be at least 1 more.
They really are pushing the fans away now.
I agree with you, that limited editions can't be too frequent, otherwise they will appear like gauging of the fans. But I think there are still plenty of uber-fans who will still buy both of the hardcovers.
DeleteI'll be getting the Yarrick eBook, but not the hardcover. (Money reasons for me, too.) I just don't like that, by making these a) limited, and b) so expensive, that more people won't be able to read them - Annandale's a great new writer for BL, and by making this so limited, his work won't be read by as many people as it could.
The same can be said for the HH limited editions - the demand for those should have been massive, but by limiting it, they exclude people who can't afford to spend $40 on a novella. Which I don't think is a good policy.
I purchased the Yarrick: Chains of Golgotha e-book and to be honest after finishing the story I wanted to kick myself in the rear for spending 12 bucks on what is essentially something I read in less than a day.
DeleteI don't know why I purchased it other than I enjoy Yarrick stories and at an impulse, but after it all is said and done, I felt dirty for doing so.
Black Library really needs to look at their pricing structure. A 128 page e-book short shouldn't cost more than a 300-page novel, no matter who the author is.
BL feels like they're price-gouging because they can. It'd be one thing to own the beautiful hardbacks, but an e-book? Come on...
(this is a repost from another post I made, but heck, it's the truth)