Louis R wrote:Oh, this part's easy: the skimmer is there to reassure the bookstore droids that they aren't misshelving fantasy in the science fiction racks
Charybdis wrote:< snip >
Besides I really need to know how and why the Recon Skimmer is needed to dispatch a Galleon - can you say OBS/Rakurai?
OR perhaps it is NOT Merlin's? 
Keep in mind that the skimmer has been on the cover of 6 of the 8 books, and only
once in proper context! (BHD with Cayleb in the cockpit in orbit.) BSRA almost got it right, with Merlin climbing out of the skimmer outside of the abbey where Sharley was being attacked. Unfortunately that scene happened at
night in a
thunderstorm, so there's a bit of artistic license at work. (And I think showing the scene during a lightning strike at night would have worked! Harder to paint of course...)
I actually
like the artist's work, so my criticism is due to the inaccuracy of the scenes he portrays, not of his artistic abilities. So to him I say "READ THE SERIES AND THE ENTIRE NEW BOOK BEFORE PAINTING THE COVER - PLEASE?"
As for all the other books, except for AMF, which shows Cayleb watching the Battle of Tarot Straight as a hologram through his cool contact lenses, which was accurate, all the other covers ought to have the artist's artistic license revoked - or at LEAST require him to read the book
before painting the cover! The skimmer appears on the cover 4 times utterly out of context and in scenes that never even happened, and LaMA had Merlin and Nimue in Nimue's cave looking at a hologram of (theoretically) a Rottweiler, which never happened but did tip us off that another seijin was going to be created, and I made one of my
few successful predictions in saying that she'd be called Nimue.
So don't try to draw any conclusions based on the skimmer being on the cover, especially if it's flying over a battle. Battles with galleons are cool, and skimmers are cool, so the two together sell books. And yes, they DO help the people in the bookstore realize that the book is science fiction. Just don't expect to learn much from the cover if the skimmer appears, especially if it's flying! When that's the case, the cover has only been accurate
once! (And
never during a battle!)
And yes, you're entirely correct that the cover shows the skimmer firing at a galleon, which is
completely contrary to the decision the inner circle made in regards to using the skimmer to sink any ship carrying the Charisian POWs from Dohlar to Zion. So nope, this cover ain't gonna happen. It looks cool, but they don't dare use TF weapons with the OBS overhead... not to mention the charges of being a demon that would result if any enemy onlookers survived!
