It's been a long time coming...

But Tom finally got his personal copies of the Chinese edition of PNM, which came out in China's bookstores in late June (friends there report it's easy to find). Here's the art, as scanned by Tom on his HP:

Front

Front flap

Back flap

Back

Tom writes:

The quality of the book seems very nice. Don't read anything into the slightly crooked pix. I had a hard time getting the book straight on my scanner!

First off, this is a soft-cover, although the cover itself is thick, almost like it's laminated with a plastic-like substance--you know, like those indestructible folders you get your kids at Wal-Mart.

I hadn't thought whether or not it would be hardcover. That was the case with the Japanese version but not the Turkish, so it seemed like a 50-50 shot as far as I was concerned.

No big PNM map, which I did not expect (that's costly to include), but the Manthorpe Curve and the twin-globe depiction of the Gap is there.

It's funny to look through the text and see various English words called out ("Voldemort" caught my third eye) and yet realize that most names are rendered in character, like those of my wife and kids and dad and so many others. So you wonder what the cut-off is on names being translated into characters.

All in all, a real thrill to receive in the mail. I got six copies.

To date, then PNM is translated into Japanese, Turkish and Chinese. The Greek version-deal fell apart when the publisher in question went bankrupt. Looking for a new one there. BFA translated only into Turkish, the market most open to my work so far, as my publisher there currently puts together a compendium of my articles for a third volume.

Comments

[Nathan Machula]

Does anyone else think the figure on the cover looks more like the old Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep logo than the Pentagon?

[D Blair]

Your right, I was wondering were I saw that design before. Congradulations on the Chinese edition of PNM Tom!