The Golden House of Samarkand is out and, for the first time in this series, I have some slight niggles.
First though, the good stuff. It's a belter of a story crammed full of betrayals and double crosses. The translation of the dialogue is a step up from previously. Rasputin's dialogue in particular is spot on. It's also nice to have a longer story for a change rather than a linked narrative split into chapters. I enjoyed it lots.
So why the niggles? Well the price has shot up compared to previous volumes (the Brexit effect perhaps), and there is then the issue of the first page. Most of the book is in the usual Corto inked style, but the first page is in watercolour. It is reproduced clearly and looks pretty but it is in black and white where it should be in colour. The colour version can be seen online and is vastly superior. For a premium price book of this kind I think we could have expected a proper colour reproduction of that page. It's not as if a single page of colour is going to destroy budgets. Am disappointed (a little).
