The drawings are good but I confess that I was a tad disappointed by the text which I hoped would go into more depth about the tunnels. My recommendation is to go ahead and buy as it is well worth the money just for the artwork J

Thanks mate. I guess I was just fishing in case for some reason someone had to report about the binding/font/content being poor for some reason or another. Seems like its not the case! The art is really what I was after, and I'm sure being new to the nightside as I am I wont have much problems with the depth of the text. Have now ordered and will post updates once I've read it.

I've just ordered a copy, the artwork sounds interesting.

93
Hamal

I have this book as well. The written content of it is average in my opinion, a good read but didn't supply anything of inspiration to me, and the artwork is good but not much different than what you find in Fries' other books. What I was really disappointed in was the physical quality of it. It's done in the style and size of a coffee table book which is usually reserved for something of higher quality (like an art book, go figure) but this one is cheapened by the xerox copy quality (and I mean that almost literally) of the artwork reproductions, the pixelated cover image and low grade paper. Don't get me wrong, Fries' artwork is good but the presentation here does harm to the aesthetics. I have much higher quality trade paperbacks in my collection and Mandrake would have done this one better to have just published it in the same paperback fashion as Fries' other books. I'm glad I have this book but I just wish the presentation of Jan Fries' work was treated more carefully than it is here.

That's shocking. Why do publishers do that? And why do authors put up with it? Cheapens their work and makes no one happy. Yes, a coffee table book raises expectations of beautiful photographic quality prints and beautiful bindings/cover art.  Thanks for sharing that NKB.

93
Hamal

That's shocking. Why do publishers do that? And why do authors put up with it? Cheapens their work and makes no one happy. Yes, a coffee table book raises expectations of beautiful photographic quality prints and beautiful bindings/cover art.  Thanks for sharing that NKB.

The quality and usefulness of the writing is the important thing. I think there is nothing more depressing than a book with a wonderful binding, and text that is simply nonsense. Nothing can deceive more effectively that a 'quality' binding.

Given we've already established the writing isn't up to much, it doesn't leave much in it's favour!

93
Hamal

In this case it really should be the artwork that shines considering that is what about 2/3 of the pages consist of. I was not aware of this fact when I ordered the book several months back. I simply based my decision on my knowledge of Fries' previous books which I've enjoyed. It may also be useful to others to point out that out of the 2/3 of the book that consist of those xerox-looking pages of artwork only about half of those pages contain content being that each physical page contains one piece of art on one side and is blank on the back. There are 72 pictures total. The total page count is 210 and the text stops at page 64. Take off the 4 pages of index and that leaves 81 blank pages one pays for when getting this book. Personally I wouldn't normally have a problem with an art book formatted in this way but it should at least be of a higher quality.*

Incidentally looking just now I'm seeing a copy already with a price tag of $113.80 on the U.S. Amazon. I paid about $30 for mine and I feel a little cheated. Be careful. This is NOT on the level of those like Fulgar, Xoanon, Starfire, etc.

EDIT: *Nightshades seems to be trying to be along the lines of the Fulgar published The Book of Ugly Ecstasy and The Valley of Fear by Austin Spare. Both of these consist primarily of line drawing sketch artwork printed on one side of each page and I paid quite a bit of money for each but somehow I never felt cheated by either. This is the difference I'm talking about if anyone else here can relate.;)

NKB,
It's spelled "FULGUR"!  ;D

Sorry, I was in a hurry. 😛 Was probably thinking of "vulgar" when I was typing it because the quality of Nightshades is just that.

Thanks for the detailed feedback NKB 🙂

Lol it probably would have been handy to know all this before I bought the book but I guess that's what this thread was for and it will serve to help future buyers. I ordered mine from amazon so it will take 2-3 weeks to arrive here in Australia, when it does I'll snap some pics and post them in here to give people a better idea of the size/aesthetic.

I also found another review and they seemed to be in agreement with what you've said so far, particularly on the cheap-ish quality of the paper

http://scriptus.gydja.com/?p=77

I'll reserve my final judgement till I've read it, but its a shame when promising works are let down by cheap production standards. As an example, I love Info-Psychology by Dr Tim Leary but my copy is already starting to come undone after just one reading! Its madness

I think the content of the book slightly makes up for its production quality so you may end up liking it. As I said, I am glad I have a copy simply because I do make a point to acquire books along these lines when I can... there aren't that many.;)