Hachette Partworks is launching a hardcover novel collection of Dungeons & Dragons novels in the UK. The subscription collection will release 100 novels at a rate of two a month, meaning it will take around four years to release the complete collection. Hachette have form for this on numerous previous projects (such as their ambitious 100-volume hardcover graphic novel collection of every single Transformers comic ever published a decade ago, which remains definitive).
The collection will bring back novel series that have been out of print in hardcover for decades, if they even got hardcovers in the first place, and in paperback for over a decade. The collection will be limited to only the Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance settings at this stage. Those subscribing for the duration will receive additional items, including bookmarks, bookends, dice trays and mugs.
Hachette have not so far released a full list of the books to be included, but have revealed the schedule for the first four books:
- Volume 18: Homeland by R.A. Salvatore (Book 1 of The Dark Elf Trilogy) - out now
- Volume 61: Azure Bonds by Kate Novak & Jeff Grubb (Book 1 of The Finder's Stone Trilogy) - late September
- Volume 2: Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman (Book 1 of The Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy) - early October
- Volume 19: Exile by R.A. Salvatore (Book 2 of The Dark Elf Trilogy) - late October
- The Moonshae Trilogy by Douglas Niles
- The Legend of Drizzt saga by R.A. Salvatore
- The Finder's Stone Trilogy by Kate Novak & Jeff Grubb
- The Dragonlance Chronicles by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman
- Elminster Ascending by Ed Greenwood
- The Brimstone Angels by Erin M. Evans
- The War of Souls Trilogy by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman
- Richard Baker is also named as another author who will be featured in the collection
It's an interesting idea and many of these are beloved fantasy novels that have been out of print for a long time, especially in hardcover. The price of £11.99 per book for handsome hardcover editions is also very reasonable (especially with the first book at £2.99). However, subscribing to the entire thing would be relatively expensive and the quality variation between some of these books can only be called extreme. It is possible to stop a subscription when it hits a dull patch and restart it later on, but it would be a bit of a faff. Also, non-UK fans are out of luck.
It's also a shame to see other settings not given some love. The Rise and Fall of a Dragon King by Lynn Abbey in the Dark Sun setting might be the single finest D&D novel ever published, and I, Strahd in the Ravenloft setting would be a good way of catching up on the character ahead of the TV show in development for Netflix.
Still, an interesting idea, and hopefully might lead to renewed interest in getting some of the rarer books back in print in the US and other countries as well.
