After tweeting a picture earlier today of the beauuuuuuuuuuuutiful Terry Pratchett Special Edition Hardbacks by Gollancz that I spotted in my local bookstore, Waterstones in Weston-super-Mare, I was inundated with messages asking what these versions were made for and where people could pick them up from. So, I thought I’d do a bit of digging!
These swish hardback books with their retro, silhouette style are the result of a project that Gollancz and Sir Terry Pratchett have been working on for a while called The Discworld Collector’s Library. The project will see the release of many of Pratchett’s Discworld novels, from The Colour of Magic to Jingo (no more than that I guess because Doubleday/Random House now do Pratchett’s books), released in collectible hardback editions all with a matching style that’ll dominate any bookshelf.
Gollancz said: “Gollancz began publishing the Discworld novels, which have sold more than 85 million copies around the world, in hardback in 1987 and have worked with Sir Terry Pratchett ever since. He has become the most shop-lifted author in the UK, selling more than 2.5 million copies every year, and these will be the most desirable editions of his novels yet published.”
Sir Terry said: “The truth is that even big collections of ordinary books can distort space, as can readily be proved by anyone who has been around a really old-fashioned second-hand bookshop, so just think what a lovely big collection of Discworldnovels like this might do”
Each book is £9.99 These editions will be published by theme, with the first theme ‘The Death Collection’, consisting of Reaper Man & Mort having been released already (they’re the ones I snapped at Waterstones above). This Death theme continues next month with Hogfather & Soul Music before moving on to a new collection; the complete schedule is below:
The Death Collection
November 2013: Reaper Man; Mort
December 2013: Hogfather; Soul Music
The Cultures of Discworld Collection
January 2014: Small Gods; Pyramids
The Unseen University Collection
February 2014: Eric; Sourcery
May 2014: Interesting Times; Moving Pictures
August 2014: The Colour of Magic; The Light Fantastic
The City Watch Collection
March 2014: Guards! Guards!; Men at Arms
June 2014: Feet of Clay; Jingo
The Witches Collection
April 2014: Equal Rites; Wyrd Sisters
July 2014: Witches Abroad; Lords and Ladies; Maskerade
The great thing about these books is that they won’t set you back quite as much as you may think. Granted, they are not cheap, but at £9.99 per book, and a maximum outlay of £19.98 a month, if you are looking to start a Pratchett collection, replace your tired old copies or simply pick up your favourite with an awesome cover: this provides your with a great way of doing it. The quality of these copies that, when you think about it, aren’t costing you much more than your typical paperback seems at very least ‘fair’.
For those who can’t wait, here’s the covers still to come… as you can see though, they really don’t do the real deal justice:
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What do you guys think? Will you be buying any? Which is your favourite?
Jennie Ivins
I think Men at Arms is my favourite cover… closely followed by Small Gods 🙂
Men at Arms and Sourcery look awesome. I reckon that’s my dads christmas present done.
[…] For those familiar with Guo’s work, you may notice these are closer to his usual stuff than the LOTR covers were – in fact, these seem a kind of hybrid between his usual stained glass/colourful fantasy scene work compared to the softer, more conventional LOTR work he did. They actually remind me a little bit of the Terry Pratchett Discworld Collector’s Library covers (by Joe McLaren), which I really liked and raved about. […]