[Wolfdrop]

Hey guys, I'm looking to upgrade my ASOIAF paperback collection to hardcover.

The only matching set that's reasonably priced is the bantam editions, but I'd have to order from amazon USA and get them shipped to Scotland.

Can anyone who has these editions comment on the quality of them or has any pictures? I noticed online that A Dance with Dragons was white underneath the dust jacket and had a foil design on it which looked pretty good. Do all the books have a similar design and are they different colours underneath the dustjacket?

Any help would be appreciated before I take the plunge and get them!

[Zerv]

I'd say the quality is about what you can expect from a normal-priced hardcover. I certainly don't have any real complaints about my set, but it's no Subterranean Press edition either, obviously.
ADwD is the only book with the design you speak of, unfortunately. The others are plain black (not white like ADwD) under the dust jacket, except for the spine text (author and title) which is in the colour you might expect from the given book (blue for AGoT, gold for ACoK, green for ASoS and red for AFfC). Note that while the font of the aforementioned spine text for the first four books corresponds to that of the dust jacket, this is not the case for ADwD. This all means that the exterior of ADwD doesn't necessarily match that of the other books without the dust jacket on (though the dust jackets do match).

You may also want to be aware that there is a new and an old map design. I think all copies of ADwD has the new one ( I know mine does), but with the older books it seems to vary. For instance, my copy of ACoK has the new map design, while AGoT, ASoS and AFfC has the old one. This is despite the fact that the books match in pretty much all other respects.

While I can imagine that most bookstores in the UK would only have the UK editions, you should be able to acquire the Bantam hardcover editions from mainland Europe if you were so inclined. I was able to get a complete set from bookstores here in Sweden.

[Wolfdrop]

Thanks, that's exactly what I was looking for. Book Depository have them but I think amazon works out cheaper even with shipping. The only UK hardcovers are long out of print and Harper Voyager only seem to be doing the occasional special edition ones. I got the clothbound AGoT with the weirwood on the front when it came out but even it's not great quality, just a glued binding, and they told me they've no plans for doing any of the others in the series in that format. The only quality UK hardcovers seem to be Bantams, my few malazan ones are well made. TheTor Stormlight Archive hardcovers are just about the best "standard" ones I've seen so far. My sub press Richard Morgan ones are in a league of their own however.

This post has been edited by Wolfdrop: 11 August 2014 - 03:26 PM