It’s an odd paradox—as ebooks are becoming more dominant, pushing the book ever closer to being nothing more than data displayed on a screen, we are experiencing something of a golden age of physical book design. Take, for instance, JJ Abrams’ and Doug Dorst’s S., a recent work of book-art so amazing and integral to the experience of the book that it isn’t being sold as a paperback or ebook. (I just finished it and hope to offer my review soon.)

It’s also the case with the new Chang-rae Lee novel, On Such a Full Sea, a dystopian tale of life in a future America, which is being sold as an ebook, a hardcover—and a special collectible edition with the first-ever 3-D book cover.

Well, actually it’s a 3-D slipcase, but it’s pretty cool all the same. The slipcase was printed with a 3-D printer, and the very limited edition (only 200 were printed) retails for $150.

It’s a beautiful object, if a bit of a gimmick that doesn’t really add to one’s enjoyment of the text. (I suppose I’m tipping my hand here a bit with my preference for content over packaging aesthetics.) Even so, I suspect that this won’t be the last time we see a 3-D cover for a book. The limited edition of On Such a Full Sea already appears to have sold out at Barnes & Nobel and Amazon, where the only buying option is from a third-party reseller for nearly $600. With results like that, Lee’s publisher, Penguin, might wish they had printed—and charged—more.