Skip to main content

Choose Your Own Edition: The Ruby in the Smoke

This Choose Your Own Edition comes to you via my thus far failed attempts to foist a copy of The Ruby in the Smoke off on my friend Beth. The Sally Lockhart series is my favorite of Pullman's work, and I am just so eager for her to read that first incomparable line. My own copy is currently on loan in a different city and won't be returning soon. I did run across an older library copy for sale with a somewhat dismaying pale blue 90s cover and naturally turned my nose up at it (I did go back later but it was gone, naturally). Full disclosure: I am such a snob sometimes about the cover that accompanies someone's first impression of a book I love. Honestly, someone needs to beat it out of me. It's the reason I own three editions of Sunshine and yet only ever loan out one (my favorite first edition), so that new readers come into the experience with the right (IMHO) packaging. SIGH. 


In any event, with no copies ready to hand, I've been browsing editions online and require your input. I actually like all three of these, though I am drooling rather most over that one on the left—a gorgeous new UK 30th anniversary edition. They've done the whole series, of course, and I . . . well, I need them all. My own copies are beloved and mismatched and the only cover of mine I really love is the first one. Because the Sally on it is Sally. And because it's smoky and threatening and atmospheric in just the right way. But I do like the sort of Dickensian Scholastic cover in the middle above (out of print, but fairly cheaply available), as well as the font and the red framing of the one on the right. And so. Which one would you gift had you the spare cash and the inclination?
Labels:

Comments

  1. Angiegirl3:59 PM

    I really like the middle one - it has a kind of steampunk feel to it which would make me want to read it IMMEDIATELY.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Angiegirl6:17 PM

    Hey Melle! Unfortunately, it is only available in the UK. But! You can order it with free worldwide shipping from The Book Depository. Here's the link: http://www.bookdepository.com/Ruby-Smoke-Philip-Pullman/9781407154190.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Angiegirl6:17 PM

    It does, doesn't it?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Angiegirl6:35 PM

    The 30th anniversary cover is just lovely. Sadly, my own copies of the series are all mismatched and ugly but I do know the cover you speak of and it was the best. That's the copy my library had and I borrowed it so often it should have just been mine. :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Angiegirl7:48 PM

    The best! I'm so glad someone else read and loved that edition, too.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Angiegirl9:31 PM

    #1, no contest

    ReplyDelete
  7. Angiegirl9:33 PM

    Oh goodness, I can see why you're having a difficult time deciding!

    The middle cover has a sort of classic feel to it, but I love the black and pink contrast on the first.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Angiegirl10:24 PM

    Yeah. Yeah . . . so pretty.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Angiegirl10:24 PM

    The contrast is so great, particularly as it captures a bit of the darkness that really makes up a huge quantity of this book and series.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Angiegirl4:59 AM

    wow ~ this is really tough! I struggle with the same burden! I am desperately trying to overcome it (just today I bought a Juliet Marillier book I have been wanting to own, but havent bought so far bc I just can't decided which edition to go for. I saw it for $1 at the op shop yesterday, didnt get it (as all undecided about collecting the large PB version), then went back today and bought it (luckily it was still there). I don't know why I agonise so! Amyway, it's a pretty enough edition but now I feel like I have committed to getting the whole series in the same matching large PB...


    I like the first two. I would love to see the inside typography and design to get a real feel for them before deciding (not that you can do that online...)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Angiegirl8:43 AM

    I love that 30th edition cover. It is incredibly striking.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Angiegirl9:23 AM

    Not just me then! Phew. Well, the matching thing is a serious issue. It does bother me when my copies switch editions mid-series. I'm still pining over the Australian edition of Marillier's The Dark Mirror. I have the second two books in the series in the Aussie versions and they're so much lovelier than the US ones.


    Being able to peek inside these would totally help me decide! If only.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Angiegirl9:23 AM

    It really is. And put it together with the other two in the series in the same editions and they're just perfect.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Angiegirl12:35 PM

    Absolutely my favorite Pullman books, and some of my most beloved child books. Unfortunately, I think mine have the light blue 90s cover you described... well all except the last one which is mismatched and drives me crazy. I like all three of these covers better than mine, but particularly that first one. It might be time for Sally to get an upgrade in my library!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Angiegirl8:43 PM

    I love that 30th edition cover. It is incredibly striking.
    Nạp Tiền Viettel và Thẻ Điện Thoại với các loại Mua Card Online

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

You Might Also Like

Such a Rush by Jennifer Echols

I can't quit Jennifer Echols . Not that I really try that hard, but I read her new ones and often feel as though I'm still searching for that one in possession of that certain something that will make me feel the way  Going Too Far did. Like I couldn't put it it down. And definitely like I didn't hate either of the main characters after the fact. Well, I found it with Such a Rush . I read this 300+ pager in a single night, which clears up the question of whether or not I couldn't put it down. And I finished it definitely not hating either of the main characters. I didn't finish it loving them both unreservedly, though. I loved Leah with my whole heart from page one and that never changed. My feelings regarding one of the Hall brothers remain complicated. More to come on this in a bit. On a side note, I'm delighted that Such a Rush is Ms. Echols' hardcover debut. It's a meticulously designed book, a pleasure to hold in my hands as I stayed up way
22 comments
Read more

Bibliocrack Review | The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

 Hi. Hey. Hello there. It's been a . . . well, you know what it's been. We're all still living this together. So I will simply skip to the fact that I couldn't not review this book here. Because reading it was something special. I knew nothing about Ali Hazelwood 's debut novel except that it involved women in STEM and that the cover made me smile. I decided to set it aside for myself as a reward. Work has been . . . punishing . . . for the last year, and I have been so exhausted every hour of every day. And so I determined to buy The Love Hypothesis  on release day knowing nothing about it. But when I went to the bookstore to get my copy, none were available. In fact, none were available anywhere for love nor money, in store or online. At first I was moderately disappointed. Then I told myself maybe it's not that great after all and I didn't necessarily need to feel this preemptive sense of loss. But it kept gnawing at me. The loss. And so I paused work an
4 comments
Read more

Angie's 2023 Must Be Mine

  Begin as you mean to go on, they say. And so here are my most anticipated titles of 2023: And no covers on these yet, but I'm looking forward to them every bit as much: The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Vol. 7 by Beth Brower Knockout by Sarah MacLean Ten Things That Never Happened by Alexis Hall Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian Diamond Ring by K.D. Casey The Gentleman's Gambit by Evie Dunmore What titles are on your list?
Post a Comment
Read more