Check it out...
Glorious isn't it? Really captures the spirit of 'Empire', the book that went to win the David Gemmell 'Legend' Award back in 2010. I do wonder who buys these big Black Library omnibus editions though... The books have been out for a long time now (
'Heldenhammer',
'Empire' and
'God King' all reviewed here last year) so who's been sat there thinking, 'I'll wait for the omnibus edition to come out and read that...'? Not the fans (I don't believe the inclusion of a new short story is going to change any minds...) and is a newcomer to these books really going to take a chance and spend fifteen pounds on a book they've never read before? Actually, they might... I'm prone to doing that every now and then.
Don't get me wrong, I do like the collected editions as some of them have really helped me get caught up on certain series (I'm looking at the 'Gaunt's Ghosts' books here). I'm just wondering who else actually buys them. Any comments are welcome, particularly from Black Library readers.
P.S. If you haven't already clicked on the review links... Yes, I would recommend reading these books. Totally :o)
I recently splurged and bought a box set without having read any of the books before, just based on reviews. If I'm late to reading a series, I am likely to buy all the books in it anyway (if it is finished) because even if I don't love the first one, I will feel required to read all of them anyway.
ReplyDeleteErm.... I do. If I know there's a trilogy series like Salamander, Night Lords or Ultramarines then I will definitely wait until the omnibus edition came out.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I'm wondering is when Horus Heresy omnibus release?
Given the price-point of these omnibus editions, it's not unreasonable to assume that people who were cool on the story would wait for the cheaper collected editions.
ReplyDeleteStefan - Good point re the price but, I guess, only if you're a fan who is definitely going to pick the books up. Given the bad press tie-in fiction gets, would you pay fifteen pounds for a tie-in book that you didn't know an awful lot about?
ReplyDeleteI'm not knocking anyone's decision to buy these books, I'm just wondering whom BL is aiming them at...
LC2 - Cool :o) Do you wait until the omnibus is out before reading the books at all or do you get them out from the library in the meantime?
@Graeme
ReplyDeleteI wait until the omnibus came out to read.
I don't get the term of "get them out from the library in the meantime"? Do you get new sci-fi books in library as soon as its release in your place?
BTW, for your reference I'm from Malaysia. May be it work differently. :)
LC2 - I'm not 100% sure how it works (I don't read library books a lot)but you can generally get books out of the library fairly soon after they have been released.
ReplyDeleteIf you're in Malaysia then I'm guessing that makes a bit of a difference... ;o)
Graeme - I agree non-fans of the Black Library series probably won't pick it up. I imagine the omnibus editions are to catch any Warhammer/Warhammer 40k fans who didn't pick up the series to begin with. Also, given the increase in popularity of their novels (NYTimes Bestsellers and award winners, now), it's a good way to catch newer readers as well.
ReplyDeleteIt's probably also a way for them to keep the series in print easier/cheaper than three or more individual novels.
The main problem I have with them is that the text in a couple of the omnibus editions is devilishly small, making the pages feel cramped and unpleasant to read.
I hardly buy the ordinary editions at all...just the omnibii? :) They are way more reasonably priced plus I do like their heft :) (and the fact that there's a rounded whole to be read).
ReplyDeleteAlthough to be fair I'm sort of a newcomer to the Black Library fiction precisely because of some opinions about tie-in ficiton, which I used to devour by the truck load when I was a teenager and I guess I thought that I outgrew it...which is sooo true for some of it. But recently I found that some of it is actually rather good(in part thanks to your reviews :) ). Especially the WH40k books, the Warhammer fantasy seems to me like a big confusing jumble, probably comes from trying to cram all those different things onto a single world...but that's another story :)