Book Porn: Spear of the Emperor Limited Edition

Here's the Limited edition release of Aaron Demski-Bowden's Spear of the Emperor.

It arrived last month but I only just now got around to giving it my attention.

I went overboard in taking pictures again, but it's very much warranted, believe me.

It's hard to say if the people at the Black Library have ever done a better limited edition than this one.

It's unlikely.

I mean, the last Gaunt's Ghosts box was similar to this one, at least in pricing, but in most people's opinion there weren't enough incentives included to pick that one up; which is why you'll find that limited release still available on the site.

Maybe it's just because that box looked drab and boring that it didn't sell out, because there was actually some really neat stuff in it. The two box sets are actually fairly similar in their included merchandise so it's hard to immediately see why you'll be hard pressed to still get a copy of  this one.

Most likely it sold out almost immediately because this one is only the first installment of a new story, rather than book 14 in a long-running series.

So let's have a look at the contents.

Tat first:

A heavy coin-thing, not sure what it actually is but it's quite cool.

The Manticore of the Adeptus Vaelarii on the front.

The Adeptus Vaelarii are the three space marine chapters tasked with the defence of Elara's Veil, a region of space on the side of the Dark Imperium.

The lion stands for the Celestial Lions, the Tail for the Star Scorpions, and the trident for the Emperor's Spears.

Up next is an honest to the God-Emperor's Purity Seal (not actually made of wax).

Corrupted Grey Knight in progress for scale (not really, calm thyself, it's just going to be a Word Bearer).

And an Emperor's Spears badge, inscribed with the name Nemeton, the Spear's home World.

But after those cool little shiny things which will be reasonably appealing to all and sundry, the Library went and outdid themselves, and managed in a deceptively simply way, to entice a core group of their fan base to definitely pick this edition up.

Some pretty decent artwork of the novel's three primary characters (or at least; those that will probably live the longest, given Bowden's penchant for delivering a good tragic narrative) .

From left to right Amadeus of the Mentors chapter, Our narrator Anuradha and Breac of the Vargantes, an Emperor's spear.

These pieces of artwork get better the more you look at them.

I'm particularly taken with Anuradha.

And then here's what I was talking about earlier;

the reason why most of the buyers made sure they got this one when it got released.

By the simple inclusion of a custom transfer sheet for the novel's main space marine faction the Library have managed to make sure that, even with the ridiculous pricing, this one was going to sell out. Most Warhammer hobbyists are readers and a fair portion of those get inspired enough by what they read to build and paint some models at the very least, if not an entire army. Transfer sheets then  become quite the incentive to pick this up.

Also included is a background booklet containing literally anything to do with the Adeptus Vaelarii.

You should probably read this before reading the novel as the information contained herein is comparable to what Amadeus has access to at the start of the novel.

At times it can help if you have some of this under your belt already as the lore can be a bit vague in the novel.

And damn me if this doesn't look cool.

And the pièce the resistance, the internal build-up of space marine armour.

And of course, the box wouldn't be complete without the actual novel would it?

The Spear of the Emperor is very good, of course.

I blew through it in under a few days and it has the honour of being the first Dark Imperium novel that I've read and though I must say that I had my doubts and reservations about the evolution of the 40k setting, this one persuaded me that it's probably a good thing.

The Dark Imperium is a dark and dangerous place, where half of the Imperium of Man has been severed from the light of the Emperor, making warp travel a more harrowing affair than ever, and reinforcements hard to come by. Where before I thought that the evolution of the setting gave too many advantages to mankind, this book opened my eyes to the reality: From a minute to midnight we now have arrived in darkest night and it's probably more grimdark than ever.

Aaron Demski-Bowen's lightning autograph.

Besides the novel itself we also have a preface and an afterword detailing the circumstances surrounding the creation of the story, and The First Primaris short story, which serves more as an afterthought to the novel rather than as a short tale that could possibly stand alone.

And there you have it.

Another sweet collector's item.

Oh yeah, and a silver bookmark-ribbon.