His Dark Materials

>1 Bamf102: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvc8aggXstY

The latest reprint is printed in China. Having said that, I personally didn't find anything to dislike other than a fresh print smell that wore out soon after. The binding looks a bit dull from pictures - it's more vivid at hand.

>1 Bamf102: I’m reading book 3 right now, I bought a first printing copy second hand (The ‘new’ smell is long gone).

The printing is good, the illustrations are okay without being spectacular, covers are quite stylish.

The series was one of the first books I loved as a child, so I’m glad to have an FS edition.

Not FS, but it might be interesting - Blackwells has recently-signed copies of the Everyman edition for £20. Doubt they will last long.

>5 InVitrio: Thank you. I was able to order the last one.

>5 InVitrio: Blimey that's a rip-off – the unsigned book is now only £15.58 so they charged a massive £4.42 *just* for the signature!
:-)

Oh, and it wouldn't even surprise me if they spoiled the book by having the author sign directly on the title page rather than on a stuck-in post-it note!

Has anyone else had a message from Blackwells stating they are unable to fulfil the order for the signed Dark Materials with the not very generous offer of 25% off an unsigned copy in its place?

>8 Aldus-Manutius: Yes, unfortunately. I think that they gave the books that were reserved by us, to the people who phoned in after seeing the post on Facebook about it a few hours later (several people posted that they managed to buy one over the phone hours after it was sold out online). I'm very disappointed.

Ah thank you - I share your disappointment

>8 Aldus-Manutius: That is pretty atrocious service - I really feel for you. Blackwells unfortunately no longer seem to consistently provide the excellent service they once were known for. I haven't actually experienced problems myself although dispatch times are sometimes lengthy but I note some quite disappointing comments about them on Amazon.

>11 RogerBlake: “ Blackwells unfortunately no longer seem to consistently provide the excellent service they once were known for”

Blackwells were bought by Waterstones almost a year ago, so i would assume their operations are now being (or are still in the process of being) integrated into the overall Waterstones system which may be part of the reason…