Orbit announces deluxe edition of N.K. Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy

One of my favorite works of fantasy is N.K. Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy: The Fifth Season, The Obelisk Gate, and The Stone Sky, in which I noted in my review is "ambitious narrative in an amazingly complex and vivid world, with a story that addresses systemic problems with oppression and power." Each entry in the trilogy earned the Hugo Award – no small feat.

If you're a fan of the series, Orbit has announced that it'll be releasing what they're calling an "Orbit Gold" (deluxe) edition of the trilogy in November: the three installments will come in a boxed set with illustrations by Nephelomancer. Each volume will come with foil-stamped covers, silver edges, a bookmark ribbon, and colored end-papers. The Fifth Season will come signed, and will include a bonus scene that wasn't included in the prior editions. They are a bit pricey: the boxed set will run you $180 ($144 if you preorder), and they're expected to ship in November.

All in all, it's a pretty edition, and it comes as publishers are increasingly turning out special editions with some additional bells and whistles for book collectors and fans. This isn't the first set of special editions that Orbit has turned out in recent years, either: last year, the publisher released a special 10th anniversary edition of Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice and has given similar treatment to the first three installments of The Expanse series by James S.A. Corey. The publisher also announced another "Orbit Gold" edition back in June: Hannah Whitten's The Wilderwood duology, which runs $120.

I really appreciate this sort of treatment and attention from publishers: Orbit's special editions are nice volumes of those books, and I happily added them to my bookshelf. Interestingly, it looks like Orbit is only selling this type of special edition through their own storefront: it isn't available on Amazon, Bookshop.org, or any of the other bookstore chains that I can find.

All in all? This looks like a nice edition for huge fans of the trilogy, and another example of this sort of treatment from a major publisher. Stay tuned: this is something that I'm planning on writing about at some point in the near future.