ISBN: 1-59606-052-2 (all editions)
Edition size: 448 numbered ♦ 52 lettered
MSRP: $260.00 ♦ $405.00

George R.R. Martin's A Storm of Swords is book 3 in his epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire. It has achieved something of a legendary status because of its commercial success. Even the best fantasy work usually can't compete with the cheapest tawdry romance novel or murder mystery.

Unfortunately, the limited editions of this series have been plagued by a multitude of problems. The first two books, A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings, were published by oft-reviled Meisha Merlin. Thrones wasn't published until two years after its target date. When it finally streeted, Jeffrey Jones' artwork wasn't warmly received, as his style was felt inappropriate for a fantasy novel. Kings was also published two years late and under a cloud of controversy. First off, Meisha was very poor in its record-keeping and did not adequately track those who had purchased Thrones. As such, when Kings was finally released, a frightening number of Thrones owners were not informed and offered purchase rights. This resulted in a terrible number of "broken" sets. Secondly, John Howe had to almost sue to get his original art pieces back and several of his illustrations appeared to've suffered damage under Meisha's "care". And finally, the limitation page for Kings referenced Thrones instead - a massive typographical error that went undetected until already in the hands of book owners.

It was with a huge sigh of relief that Meisha surrendered the license to Subterranean Press. SubPress already had a rich publishing background and it was felt that they would pick up Meisha's fumble and score a touchdown with Swords. The impressive work of Charles Vess would be featured and, most surprisingly, the edition would be split into two volumes, as it was felt a single tome would be too unwieldy to read and the manufacturing would be problematic.

Because of these enhancements, the MSRP rose from $250 (Meisha) to $260 for the numbered version and from $350 to $405 for the lettered. The lettered sold-out immediately.

Unfortunately, SubPress made a number of questionable calls on their play, too. There's a veritable laundry list of things "wrong" with Swords. Some by unwitting omission, some by circumstance, but others by design.

UPDATE - Bill Schafer, head of Subterranean Press, has addressed each of these points. His responses are in green and appear largely unedited. My comments are in cyan.

• Swords missed its intended release date of the first month of 2006, as it actually came out in September - nine months late.
  True enough, we missed the date due to the artist's lateness, and kept everyone abreast of this through our newsletter, unlike the previous publisher, where long silences were the norm.
  This is true. I am on the SubPress mailing list and regular updates were distributed via that list and also on the SubPress website.
• SubPress elected to only produce slipcases for the lettered version, despite the fact that traycases are almost always included with other lettered SubPress titles. The reasons given were because it might jack the price of the book to $500 and SubPress' traycase provider had been chronically behind on production for the past year. Some sort of "uniformity" issue was also stated, but never adequately explained.
  This has been explained adequately, I think. I didn't want this lettered edition approaching the $500 barrier and still don't. On this particular title, a handcrafted traycase was not feasible. As has also been explained, GRRM, who for better or worse makes the final decisions on these matters, vetoed this idea.
• The slipcase lacked any foil stamping whatsoever (Meisha's had stamping). This was later revealed to be an error on the part of SubPress, as a stamp design was submitted by Vess, but erroneously dropped from the production run. Meisha's slipcases for their lettered editions also included a full-color onlay of that book's dustjacket illustration.
  Future cases will have foil stamping, likely different for both editions. Rather than simply stamping the title, as MM did, we'll incorporate art, and possibly two color stamping on the lettered edition.
  Sounds like a neat addition, especially the two-color angle.
• The vertical trim size was shortened versus the Meisha edition, causing an eyesore when viewed next to each another.
  The trim size was changed to make the titles, most of which are planned as two volumes from here on out, easier to handle and more readable.
• Whereas Martin wrote a foreward especially for Meisha's editions of Thrones and Kings, none appeared for Swords (SubPress said that Martin didn't have anything else to add).
  George was asked to do this, but declined, as he felt he had nothing to add to what he'd said in previous volumes.
  Fair enough.
• The gilt included with the Meisha volumes was eliminated.
  True. For two reasons. It would have added yet another step, and time, to a series we were attempting to get back on track. Also, there were cost considerations when it came to the gilting. We chose, instead, for example, to spend $5000 having the books professionally designed and laid out, figuring that the interior be more elegant and readable than MM's editions of greater importance. MM did the design in house, and paid nothing, and in my opinion it shows.
• The embedded ribbon bookmark found in the Meisha lettered editions was also scuttled.
  Instead, six printed bookmarks, two of them signed, were produced, at a greater cost than gluing in a ribbon bookmark. Yet another way we were attempting to differentiate our edition from MM's.
  And they are nice bookmarks (see the picture of the set below).
• No maps of any kind were included (Kings included a beautifully detailed map of King's Landing, which has since been reproduced as a limited-edition lithograph by the artist, Graig Kreindler).
  Charles Vess' strengths do not lay in cartography, and he chose not to create a map. We've made the decision NOT to include any art from previous volumes in ours, so each will stand alone. As far as I'm concerned, for example, the chapter heads from volume one and volume two look amateurish. Should I have continued with them for continuity's sake? Or should I have included a map that was obviously not in Charles Vess' style, merely to have one present?
  Hey, a nice map NOT in Vess' style would've been fine with me.
• The limitation page incorrectly states there are 26 lettered copies when there are actually 52 (A-Z, AA-ZZ).
  Guilty. We missed it. GRRM missed, and so did Charles Vess. It won't happen again.
  This was immediately acknowledged by Bill when it was brought to his attention.
• An entire paragraph plus some fragments were mistakenly deleted on pages 21 & 22 of the first volume due to some last-minute artwork reshuffling.
  Again, guilty. This occurred when we allowed Vess and GRRM to move illustrations around after final proofing had been done. That won't be allowed again.
  Bill also readily owned-up to this when it was illustrated to him by sharp readers. Here're comparison pics which document this error:

SOFTCOVER Omitted text highlighted in red.	..........	HARDCOVER Note illustration's position.
.....		.....
(click on each for high-rez pics)

To add insult to injury, the differences between the numbered and much-higher-priced lettered edition are very minor, consisting of:

• A different color slipcase (gray for lettered owners, black for numbered).
• Slightly better binding.
• A "remarque", or thumbnail-sized pencil sketch, on the limitation page by Vess.

As a plus, to offset the lack of embedded ribbon bookmarks, SubPress did produce a run of six attractive heavy-paper-stock bookmarks, two of which are signed by Martin and Vess respectively. These were given to both numbered and lettered owners.

Bill Schafer has publicly stated that there was an "overwhelmingly positive" response to Swords. However, after a fierce series of exchanges on www.westeros.org, Mr. Schafer conceded that, for the next book (A Feast for Crows), he would restore the stamping on the slipcase. Unfortunately, after consulting with Martin himself, the possibility of a traycase for lettered purchasers was vetoed, with SubPress again citing cost and production delay concerns.

Without the traycase, there is a considerable amount of doubt whether or not the lettered edition is worth the asking price. SubPress has not been forthcoming about any additional real value-added elements that will be included with the lettered version of Crows, other than the POSSIBILITY of a color slipcase stamp with a different design from the numbered (see the aforementioned response to this from Bill).

Was the move to Subterranean Press worth it? So far, the jury's out. For all of Meisha's faults, it appears as if they provided their customers - especially lettered purchasers - more frills; delays, editorial gaffes, and artist inappropriateness and abuse notwithstanding. SubPress' greatest claim-to-fame with Swords was breaking it up into two physical volumes, which some have questioned the wisdom of (it's only a few pages longer than Thrones and Kings). The change in trim size has also created many head-scratchers.

The following are pictures of the lettered edition. Please note that the frame for the bookmarks was commissioned by me and did NOT come standard with this edition.

- L E T T E R E D -