I purchased this so I could be among the few to collect Lonely Road Book's books, which are supposed to have higher production value than other comparable limited editions. Of course, the higher retail price reflects that. The first book I bought, "The Arthur Darknell Double" (I missed out on Dark Forces) was beautiful with a sleek, supple red slipcase, of an unusual material I've never seen on a slipcase before, and a cool double-sided dust jacket. It was modeled after the old Ace Doubles where you finish one book and flip the book over to start the second. It also happended to be the first noir book by horror author Ray Garton - never before published and likely never again. By comparison, this book is a BIG disappointment.

The slipcase and book are covered in matching brown leather - the same, boring kind that many lettered edition traycases are made of. There is no dust jacket, and because screenplays are so sparce (essentially a script with lots of white space, big margins, and not a lot of text) the interior looks empty and it didn't take much time to read. This would have been better it it had included a short biography of Poe, some of his poems, anything to give the collector more bang for their buck. The chapbook they are including would have been better included in the book. In fact, the introduction asks, "If you're wondering why you should bother reading a screenplay that has not (yet) been made into a movie..." Instead, I'm asking myself why I bothered to pay so much to buy it, let alone read it.

If you haven't already invested in buying the first one or two books from Lonely Roads and want to conintue matching numbers, I would recommend skipping this one. I just don't think it's worth the $100 price tag. Unfortunately, the next book coming from Lonely Road looks disappointing as well. "The Vampyricon Trilogy" by Douglas Clegg. It's not that he isn't a great writer, or the books well worth reading. It's that they've already been published, and Shocklines even produced a limited edition of book 1. The Lonely Road edition will be an omnibus that includes 50-100 pages of "deleted scenes." Meaning pages that were likely deleted by the editor. A new short story, or even novella set during the story period would have been a better treat for collectors and readers alike. And, the publisher increased the print run from 200 to 250 - making it a little less collectable. Why? I truly hope the production value ( a truly spectacular slipcase, dust jacket) makes it worth repurchasing since I already have the trilogy. And if the next book announcement isn't in keeping with the standard set by Arthur Darknell, I may just give up my number to someone else - and start looking at Charnel House books to invest in. Silk binding, and brocades are just a little bit more deluxe than brown leather. ( )