Pimping the Trades: Nikolai Dante Volume 2: The Great Game...

[The Amstor Computer]

"He's a lover, adventurer and gambler - and he's too cool to kill. His name is Nikolai Dante, and he's fighting and drinking a path of mayhem and glory across future Russia!

Having discovered his heritage and bio-bonded with the awesome Weapons Crest, Dante is getting to know his newfound family a little better. Ordered to act as his father Dmitri's agent, Nikolai accompanies his siblings on a tour of "family duty" - spying, murder and intrigue. But does he have what it takes to be a "true" Romanov?"

Link: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v297/buttonman/dantegame.jpg" target="_blank">http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v297/buttonman/dantegame.jpg

[The Amstor Computer]

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[Noisybast]

Read it - great stuff!

I missed the early Dante adventures during my "I'm not buying that - it's gone poo" phase, so I'm really enjoying these reprints.

[Richmond Clements]

Is it out?
I pre ordered it on Amazon.

[steffclarke]

Help,
I am looking for a prog in which my artwork appeared in the early to mid eaighties it was a drawing of 'judge quinch', unusually it was in colour, on the back cover, as far as I can remember.
 Help!

Stephen Clarke

[Byron Virgo]

I got this almost two weeks ago and I still haven't finished it yet - just too busy, I guess!

[The Amstor Computer]

Ho-kay...

Contents

This second Dante collection reprints:

The Trouble with Arbatovs
Cruel Britannia
The Great Game
The Octobriana Seduction
The Masque of Dante
The Moveable Feast
Tour of Duty
The Cadre Infernale
The Hunting Party

There's also a nice, concise introduction page that lays out the events of the previous book well for any new readers. Congrats to whoever wrote that, as it's a welcome touch. No cover gallery or sketchbook, though - the collection is real bare bones stuff, I'm afraid.

Reproduction

The quality of reproduction is greatly improved over the first volume, but the entire book still appears to have been scanned from progs rather than films or original art. Some sections fare better than others - Andy Clarke and Charlie Adlard both come off better than Si Fraser - but it's still clearly not up to the quality of the Rebellion-era reprints in the second Devlin Waugh collection. That said, the art is generally clean & clear - it's just a shame we couldn't get the same level of quality we saw in the old Hamlyn trade.

In spite of the slightly disappointing repro, this is a solid, well-presented collection of stories. Dante has suffered from apparent aimlessness in recent years, but this book shows the story off when it was tight, focused and entertaining readers every week, and with art from several great artists this should be high on your to-buy list.

The Future Shop & email problems

Now for a complaint...

I ordered this book on 22 March from the Future Shop. At the end of last week, not having heard a single peep from the shop, I emailed to find out what was happening. I got no reply. At the beginning of this week I emailed again. Still no reply. One final email went unreplied to, so I wrote again to cancel my order & tell them that I was ordering from another supplier.

My copy of the book arrived from the second retailer today, along with - you guessed it - a copy from the Future Shop.

As you can imagine, I'm pretty pissed off by the lack of communication. Have other readers / customers been treated like this, or is this a one-off? Needless to say, I'm not going to bother ordering anything else from the Shop.

[Noisybast]

Yeah - I picked it up at my local thrill-merchant a couple of weeks back. You should be able to get it from a real shop if Amazon are dragging their heels.

So inspired was I that I started work on this:

Link: http://www.mattnicholson.myby.co.uk/3d/potemkin/potemkin.htm" target="_blank">Diavolo!

http://www.mattnicholson.myby.co.uk/3d/potemkin/wip01.jpg">

[Byron Virgo]

Good review, Amstor. I too appreciated the added introduction, whilst at the same time bemoaned the lack of a covers gallery.

Also, I had the exact same thing happen to me with the first Dante collection, re buying from the Future Shop, then giving up and getting ot from somewhere else, only to end up with two copies.

[The Amstor Computer]

Rac -

It's out, and it should be available through Amazon or one of the Marketplace Sellers linked below. I'd recommend The Book Depository myself, but it may be simpler to go through Amazon now that they've finally got the book on 24hr...

Link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/tg/detail/offer-listing/-/1904265324/new/ref=sdp_newb/026-9914778-6842863" target="_blank">Nikolai Dante Volume 2: The Great Game

[The Amstor Computer]

Byron -

I suspected it might have happened to other people. Can I ask what you did in the end? It really does get a bit stupid - they don't announce the new books, they don't advertise the new books & then you can't even buy the books when they're out! Having my emails ignored just rubs salt in the wounds.

[IndigoPrime]

Send it back and ask for a refund. Actually, demand a refund over the phone in return for you sending it back. Alternatively, sell it on eBay for the cover price?you'll probably sell it, as it's so new.

[Byron Virgo]

I never got a reply to my emails, so eventually I just went out and bought it, with the Future Shop book turning up a couple of days afterwards.

I just decided to use it as a cheap Christmas gift and gace it to a friend of mine.

[Richmond Clements]

Cheers, I'll chase this up at once.

[Richmond Clements]

Rather annoyingly, it was my fault. I'd it grouped with Fort Neuro, so they were waiting for it to be released before sending both.