Finch Limited: Chapbook Cover
- Order the Rebel Samizdat Finch Limited Edition
- Order the Heretic Finch Limited Edition
-Read the first 58 pages…
I’ve posted before about the Finch limited editions, specifically about the Murder by Death soundtrack and about the differences between the two editions.
But now, as you can see above, there’s a cover for the chapbook that accompanies the Heretic limited edition, created by John Coulthart, and it’s just lovely. Coulthart continues to inspire and amaze me. (He’s also just posted three fascinating entries about the marvelous Belgian artist François Schuiten – here, here, and here.)
Here’s the full layout (front and back) of the chapbook along with an interior page from the chapbook, which contains text completely different from the finished novel from a much, much earlier imagining of the book:
(For a larger image, click here.)
September 15, 2009 at 4:25 pm
Very, very cool. Curious: what’s the page-count of the chapbook?
September 15, 2009 at 4:27 pm
The chapbook’s about 10,000 words. I don’t know what the page count is.
September 15, 2009 at 4:50 pm
More Schuiten posts coming up! If I don’t er, sleep and stuff…
September 15, 2009 at 5:23 pm
Curious Jeff — what do you mean by completely different text from an earlier imagining of the book? I know, sounds like a dumb question, but inquiring minds and all…
September 15, 2009 at 5:24 pm
But it’s over $100! I can’t afford great literature AND great design! I’m sure you won’t have trouble selling them to richer folk, though :)
September 15, 2009 at 6:20 pm
Well, Underland set the price. It’s definitely a collector’s item–the value should go up.
Mr. Swartzfeger–back in 1998, when I imagined the Ambergris Cycle, the third was to be called The Zamilon File and the fourth Fragments from a Drowned City. Fragments was about a detective who comes to Ambergris to find a missing girl for his client, during a time of gray cap rule. But in writing Shriek, elements of Fragments got subsumed into that novel. And then when I started thinking seriously about what became Finch, it featured a detective who lived in an occupied Ambergris and was forced to be a detective for the gray caps. And Finch took parts of Zamilon and also took parts of Fragments, meaning Finch became the third and final novel. The bits that had to do with the detective coming *to* Ambergris were discarded. If you get the chapbook, you’ll note characters who have some of the same names or even characteristics as in Finch, but they’re totally different otherwise. And totally different scenes, as it follows the detective into the strange city of Ambergris. So…that’s what that means. It was basically the start of a totally different novel featuring a detective and some of the same character names from what became Finch.
September 16, 2009 at 4:45 am
Of course the value goes up — it starts with being a book the publisher has (lesser value), and then becomes a book I have, in MY bookshelf, which is a much higher value. Surely there’s no higher possible value for books?
September 16, 2009 at 6:24 am
….i’m like matt….i’m gonna have to wait until the more affordable version of finch becomes available in the book shops…….oh well, still be the same remarkable novel…..
peace and love….
September 16, 2009 at 8:13 am
I’m just lettin’ people know about it. The most important version is the one in bookstores, on Amazon, and on indiebound, comin’ out November 3rd. I hope people buy that one…cause I’m living off of this income now.
September 16, 2009 at 10:23 am
Cannot bloody wait for this one! Wish I weren’t broke so that I could afford the Heretic/Rebel editions! My fandom is being royally tested here – I’ve got my wallet sitting on one shoulder and a greycap on the other, both whispering devilment in my ears.
Will there be a non special-edition hardcover available of Finch?
September 16, 2009 at 10:30 am
Alex: Nope, alas not. The thing is–like many writers who don’t write stuff that’s easily classifiable, I sell best in trade paperback. The limiteds will be great books, but you can also buy the Murder by Death CD by itself off of their website. It’s most important to me that people buy the trade paperback and, if they like it, recommend it to friends. It’s gonna be interesting, in that this is the first time I have had a major book out where I depended on the income, since I had the day job before. I really want it to earn out it’s advance and give me an additional revenue stream by sometime next year. You see a lot of writers taking donations and stuff like that to keep afloat. Well, I keep afloat by not only getting book deals but people buying the books. So, if you like the fiction and you want to see it continue, buy the trade paperback–and buy it a lot. LOL.