As I noticed previously, readers have been calling for omnibus editions of the critically-acclaimed Murderbot Diaries science fiction series for some years. The series, by Martha Wells, consists of five novellas and two short novels which has been positively festooned with awards, praise and strong sales, but their high prices for a short page count have put them out of the reach of more frugal SFF fans.
The books have been reissued in the last few weeks in new omnibus editions to hopefully address the issue. Whilst the format is still not generous - with only two books per edition rather than a more appropriate three (the first three novellas combined only come to 450 pages) - it was still a marked improvement over prior editions in terms of value for money. Unfortunately, the new editions have been called out for terrible proofing and formatting.
The problem appears to be that the books have been released in a print-on-demand format, with all the hallmarks of shoddy formatting and/or corrupted files being used. Given the publisher is Tor Books, the largest and most popular SFF publisher in the United States, and its UK off-shoot, the poor quality of the books is most surprising, especially given they are charging the price of a full, properly-formatted and edited paperback edition.
The three omnibus volumes are each a different height and size to the others, with the cover images not aligned correctly, and in the interior there is an inefficient use of space.
Multiple reviewers have pointed out the problem on the Amazon review pages, and via BlueSky, noting they have returned the books for a full refund.
Hopefully this problem can be fixed quickly; as one of the highest-profile science fiction book series of recent years, and with an imminent TV adaptation on Apple TV+, it would be a shame for new readers to be put off by poor quality books. The series, and readers, deserve better.
2 comments:
If you go to any independent bookstore, you will notice an improvement in quality. All of our murderbot books are the same size. Possibly this is because we order directly from publishers and avoid print on demand.
Go to an independent bookstore! All our books are the same size because we order directly from the publisher. We also do quality control and don't use print-on-demand sources.
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