Saturday, March 3, 2012

Look inside the 'CARTE BLANCHE' RED EDITION (video)

Some Bond fans and book collectors were somewhat disappointed with Waterstone's Special Edition of Jeffery Deaver's Carte Blanche, which was basically the regular hardcover in a box with a surprisingly steep price tag. Also disappointing was the price of £1000 for the beautiful Bentley Special Edition, which put it well out of reach for most fans.

I'm not sure if this had anything to do with Hodder & Stoughton's decision to release a third Special Edition of Carte Blanche several months after the book had come out in stores. But I am certainly glad they did, because the Carte Blanche Red Edition is definitely the book to get!

Not only is the Red Edition gorgeous -- it's basically the super pricey Bentley Edition with a red cover -- but it is also eminently affordable at £100. And at the moment it's discounted 35% on Amazon.co.uk, bringing the price down to £65 (with free shipping in the UK).

Instead of me writing about the book and explaining all the coolness within, I've shot a video which I think does the job just as well.


The Carte Blanche Red Edition is limited to 500 copies and can be purchased at Amazon.co.uk.

Thanks to Vickie Boff at Hodder and Stoughton.

12 comments:

  1. I love it too. It's SO much more satisfying than the really disappointing limited edition that came out at the time of publication, which is basically the regular UK First in a flimsy, unwieldy, top-loading box. This one's just a really satisfying book to hold. I've had a "Judging a Book by Its Cover" post half-written about this for a while, but I guess there's no need to finish it now, as that video pretty much covers all the necessary ground!

    You have a very impressive book case for your Bond Firsts. I like the cabinet doors. I was wondering why you have two Die Another Days? Was there an error edition of that one (like some of the other film tie-ins, which messed up the final writing credits at first) or something special?

    And speaking of special things... if your Bentley edition comes in an Aston Martin case, then you've got something REALLY special! :)

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    Replies
    1. You might recall there were some copies of Die Another Day that had their pages cut a little short. Error copies. Think we covered it on CBn. I have one of those.

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    2. Nope, didn't know that! But I figured there was something variant about it when I saw two copies on your shelf. I look forward to the eventual Benson hardcover post where you cover it in detail...

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    3. I actually migrated the story about DAD error from CBn to here:

      http://www.thebookbond.com/2002/12/flawed-print-run-makes-die-another-day.html

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  2. Wow. Looks much nicer here than the in photos of it , which I can now see don't really do it justice.

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, I was trying to take pics, but then I thought the best way to really show it was to film it.

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  3. Ah, but is it worth reading? I've been buying Folio Society editions which are really works of art (literally in the case of David Eccles's covers) and beautifully bound with slip case. But then, the books deserve the treatment, being acknowledged literary classics. The Carte Blanche cover is refined but the bullet hole going through the pages just seems appallingly cheesy and red edged pages unimaginative.
    The video was worth watching to see your collection, though!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Keir. I really enjoyed the book. And I'm fine with every Bond book being treated as a classic! :)

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    2. I thought the bullet hole through the pages would be cheesy, too, but it's really not. It's actually quite cool. If you wanted to READ this edition, you could and it wouldn't really get in the way. I was afraid a gimmick like that would make the book unreadable, and even expensive limited editions are still books and SHOULD be readable. And this one is.

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  4. Great video, your bookcase housing the first editions looks amazing. I'd love to see a video tour of your collection!

    Keep up the good work!

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  5. BTW, I said it has a leather cover. I doubt it's real leather (like the white Bentley edition), but it's leather-like material.

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