Saturday, November 28, 2009

The Infernal Ripoff: An Elder Scrolls Novel


That's right kiddies, this past Tuesday The Infernal City: An Elder Scrolls Novel was released to book stores everywhere, but I like my title better. Why? Because weighing in at 272 pages, the book costs a whopping $17.99!

272 pages is not a novel, that's a pamphlet. On the same day, Halo: Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe also launched and it sells for $18.99. The difference? It's 528 pages and thick enough to smack your best friend upside the head over and over again until he's special!

But the only thing special in the head here is Random House if they think I'm going to be dumb enough to shell out that much cash for that little content. Shame on you, greedy publisher. A novel of this size should be around the $12.00 mark and no more.

Looking at the industry as a whole, I have not liked the shift where books are released as wanna-be hardcovers first, called trade paperbacks, and we're forced to pay a little more or wait a year for the book to be re-released as a regular mass market paperbound. No, I'm not too fond of that at all, but at least the normally trumped up trade paperbacks, like the Halo novels, have the length to back the cost, but The Infernal Ripoff is just insulting to reading enthusiasts everywhere.

The insult is compounded even more by how rich and lengthy the in-game books from the series actually are. Such a damn shame.

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