Hell's Foundations Quiver Cover and Synopsis

OrlandoNative wrote:

phillies wrote:Mindful of alternative artistic creations, perhaps the error is that the young lady, wearing a frilly dress with chain weave and silk sleeves. has incorrectly been given a sword, so that Nimue is flying the airplane.

That wouldn't be necessary, since OWL is perfectly capable of operating skimmers by remote control; as he/she/it has done several times in the past. I suspect that such control extends to the armament of *armed* skimmers as well. Just like the predator drones we have today.

As others have noted, we haven't had access to read the entire book/ARC as yet, so we don't even know if this scene occurs in the narrative somewhere. However, I could (possibly) see some sort of scenario where some of the guiding forces of the Empire of Charis might get caught unawares by a raiding force; since they tend to mostly cover the opposition hierarchy and other locations of interest rather than constant monitoring of the oceans at large. Possibly on something similar to one of the Archbishop's "pastoral journeys"; where only one, or possibly just a few, ships travel together. Remember, in LAMA, some of the mainland domains have now fielded at least some commerce raiders. Some could have gotten together and tried a bit of raiding closer to Charis, and stumbled over such a convoy; necessitating an emergency response that otherwise would not have been utilized.

SHV wrote:If that's the cover, it will be interesting to see if, in the book, Merlin and Nimue watch a recon-skimmer use energy weapons on a galleon.

Steve

Libertarian wrote:

SHV wrote:If that's the cover, it will be interesting to see if, in the book, Merlin and Nimue watch a recon-skimmer use energy weapons on a galleon.

Steve

I've only read the first two pages of this topic so I may be late to the party on this. IF, and it's a big IF, the skimmer does shoot-up a galleon, couldn't it be using something like 20mm APIT? Shielded inside the skimmer, the energy signature of the ignition might not be noticed by the OBS. Or the OBS could be on the other side of the planet.

Just my two cents worth. YMMV

McGuiness wrote:The history of covers over the course of the Safehold series has been rather hit or miss. For some reason, the skimmer appears on almost every cover, (except AMF and LaMA) and Merlin appears on every one of them except OAR, where he's presumably inside the skimmer.

The cover for HFQ clearly shows Nimue and Merlin on a ship, while the skimmer uses energy weapons on a nearby galleon. NOT GONNA HAPPEN! The discussion of using energy weapons has come up at least twice, first when discussing giving Gwylym Manthyr and his fellow Charisian POWS an easy death if they were taken to Zion by ship, where they would be tortured to death. The second was during the Great Canal Raid, when Merlin didn't want to murder the innocent crew of a semaphore tower and wished he could use the skimmer's energy weapons so he wouldn't have to get his hands bloody in person. In both cases he ruled out using them because of the danger of setting off the Rakurai.

In my opinion the artist should lose his artistic license for not depicting scenes true to the series! Sadly, I realize as RFC has stated that the purpose of cover art is to sell books, and fidelity to their contents isn't the artist's first priority.

So let's discuss the various covers and the errors of the art verses the text.

1. OAR - The skimmer flies over Tellesberg Palace during the day. This never happened, although it did fly to the Palace twice at night - once to pick up Merlin so he could find a nearby cave in which to hide it, and then to snatch him from his window via tractor beam and drop him on the roof of the Duke of Tirian's library to stop an assassination plot during a thunderstorm.

2. BSRA - The skimmer with Merlin inside it floats over the planet Safehold. Oddly enough, this scene actually occurred in the book as depicted!

3. BHD - Merlin emerges from the skimmer outside the abbey where a team of TL assassins are trying to kill Sharleyan. Note the absence of night or a thunderstorm!

4. AMF - Merlin watches a hologram of the Battle of the Tarot Strait. He probably saw it in his mind as the SNARCs beamed it to him, but otherwise it's accurate.

5. HFaF - Merlin crouches by the skimmer and watches the Battle of Iythria. Never happened...

6. MTaT - The skimmer flies over the either the First Battle of Thesmar where the Dohlarans met the Hanth and the ICM for the first time, or BGV driving the AoSG northward up the Slymahn Gap. Both battles actually occurred, but the skimmer was never there! Neither was Merlin, although he's depicted waving his katana and charging forward with the troops. Hanth didn't have any field artillery until the Dohlarans generously "donated" quite a lot after the battle, (though he did have naval guns that he didn't use) while BGV had at least 80 field guns. His troops didn't engage in headlong charges as depicted on the cover though - it wasn't possible in the narrow, flooded confines of the Gap, and ICA military doctrine requires its soldiers to slither forward on their stomachs, using their breech-loading Mahndrayns to maximum effect. So my best guess, based on the field artillery is that the cover depicts the Battle of Serabor, ignoring the fact that the gap is flooded and the only way through it is by taking the high road, even though the action depicted better mimics the Battle of Thesmar, (minus field artillery) since Hanth's troops did move forward along a wide front when the Dohlarans panicked and ran. Hanth's troops never charged though, and neither did BGV's troops, so whichever battle it is, we're seeing a lot of artistic license.

7. LaMA - Merlin and Nimue gaze a the blueprints of an ironclad, probably a Rottweiler, shown in 3d in Nimue's cave. This scene never happened, but did lead to one of my few correct predictions in the entire series when I said the girl would be a PICA named Nimue!

8. HFQ - Merlin and Nimue gaze on at an impossible scene of the skimmer using energy weapons on a nearby galleon. This scene won't happen, but it might be a hint that Thirsk's fleet will be in serious trouble!

There you have it. All 8 books, with an explanation of the cover art, and how much (if any) artistic license was used. Only one of the seven covers has been true to the text. Wanna make a bet that the cover art for HFQ is accurate? I'll give you really long odds!

Randomiser wrote:Interesting discussion on covers, folks, thanks.

Now that I think about it, I can't remember a cover ever selling me a book. Most bookshops that have enough stock to be worth looking at store the books with the spines out anyway, and once I pick the book up I am only interested in the blurb, then the first couple of pages. I guess the publishers are stuck with putting something on the cover and, per discussion above, the shops aren't going to stock it if it's just the title.

Keith_w wrote:

Randomiser wrote:Interesting discussion on covers, folks, thanks.

Now that I think about it, I can't remember a cover ever selling me a book. Most bookshops that have enough stock to be worth looking at store the books with the spines out anyway, and once I pick the book up I am only interested in the blurb, then the first couple of pages. I guess the publishers are stuck with putting something on the cover and, per discussion above, the shops aren't going to stock it if it's just the title.

I have bought books based on the cover, specifically, in this case, OAR whose cover attracted me sufficiently to read the back blurb and thus purchase the paperback for my reading materiel for a visit to the west coast, leading to my current addition to Safehold, the honorverse, hells gates and wargods.

Randomiser wrote:Interesting discussion on covers, folks, thanks.

Now that I think about it, I can't remember a cover ever selling me a book. Most bookshops that have enough stock to be worth looking at store the books with the spines out anyway, and once I pick the book up I am only interested in the blurb, then the first couple of pages. I guess the publishers are stuck with putting something on the cover and, per discussion above, the shops aren't going to stock it if it's just the title.