Novel covers

S

Shane

Spaceman
Back from vacation and I was perusing the CIC when I saw the info on the German version of The Price of Freedom. Looking at the cover got me to thinking. What's with the inconsistency in the covers of WC books? I understand why Heart of The Tiger and Price of Freedom (English) look the way they do. I also undesrtand why the other books don't look exactly like those (they aren't novelizations of games,) but some of the covers look like they don't even belong on a WC book.

The worst cover has to be Action Stations. The Kilrathi head is about the only thing WC about the cover. The ships don't look right (I guess you could argue that's what the older style capships looked like.) Then there is the goofy looking helmet on the guy, and where do the two women come in? I liked the book, even though the Pearl Harbor comparison was a little heavy handed.

False Colors on the other hand was great, even though I don't recall any Excaliburs in the novel (it's been a while since I read it.) There were easily recognizable Confed and Kilrathi ships and the Kilrathi head was cool.

Some of the others I don't remember as well, I never did figure out what the ship seen from the cockpit of a craft on the the cover of Freedom Flight was.

I'm still trying to figure out that German cover of the Price of Freedom.
 
They could be what Border World grunts look like. Badly equiped Border World grunts...
With weapons we've never seen before...
Or they just said: "That original cover looks lame. Here, put some futuristic rebels on it instead."

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The time is near.
There are still quite a few days remaining.

I don't care for fame, power or money...
I just want to FIGHT!
-Sanosuke Sagara
 
Shane: Yeah, who were those two women on the cover of Action Stations? Come to think of it, there weren't any major female characters in that novel. Weird.

And what about Fleet Action? Earth has its own solar flares!? Just kidding, I'm sure those "flares" were from the AM torpedoes, but they overdid it just a little, eh?
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And the ship on Freedom Flight? That doesn't look like any Kilrathi ship I've ever seen.

And, no, there were no Excaliburs in False Colors (although they were mentioned, I think, in regard to Blair and the T-Bomb run to Kilrah). Our heroes in that novel basically flew WC1-era Confed ships (and WC3-era Kilrathi ships).

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If I'm locked on, there's no such thing as evasive action!
 
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Speaking of the novels, did you manage to buy End Run for me yet, Dralthi5?
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Hmm, just what is the Kilrathi head doing on the Action Stations cover? I mean, it seems to be a bit... detached...
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Or at least, that's what it seems, when I look at that tiny picture in the CIC's Background section.

That Kilrathi on the cover of False Colours looks really weird too. They shouldn't have cut off half his face like that.

As for Freedom Flight, I'll worry about the Kilrathi ship after I figure out where they got the weird Terran cockpit from
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But I think they did Fleet Action perfectly. The explosions may be a bit big, but that's the whole point
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. And the Kilrathi ships are great too; they look a lot like the Ralari, which is one of my favourite Kilrathi capships.
 
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Yes, I did buy it...

To me, the Cat on the FC cover looks like its eating the Excalibur, but I think that may be the point.

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If I'm locked on, there's no such thing as evasive action!
 
End Run was a pretty good cover as well. The Ralari was cool, but I liked the look of the Fralthi better.

Speaking of WC1 ships, did anyone else ever wonder where the Krant and the Gratha come from? Their design is varied from the usual Kilrathi ship, though the Krant and the Ralari share some similar deisgn features, albeit on a different scale. The "expand the storyline" portion of me would like to see the argument made that they actually incorporated a designed from one of the peoples they vanquished, like the Varni.
 
The Kilrathi wanted a decent design for a change, that's all there is to it.
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The Gratha is somewhat reminiscent of older jet aircraft. The Krant, well is it just me or did they want a two-seater for a change?
 
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Maybe it was a different designer, who didn't make any other designs? Presumably, not all Kilrathi ships are designed by the same person
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I suppose that this design later on formed the basis of the Jalkehi, though obviously the head designer was a different one
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As for the Krant... what DH said. Except that I don't think the Krant was all that unusual, as far as Kilrathi designs go. It's sort of similar to the Jalthi.
 
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Concept artists! They're not the same guys that Origin had. Therefore, designs tend to vary. WC did'nt have the technical database that Star Trek had. It's very awesome!
Unfortunately, I am not much of a Trekky
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1.) You misspelled Trekkie.

2.) It's Trekker.
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If I'm locked on, there's no such thing as evasive action!
 
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I want all of you to look to the top left of the page. Now what do you see? I'll tell you what you see... 'The WING COMMANDER CIC Chat Zone', not Star Trek, Wing Commander. There's a big difference (at least there was last time I checked)

TC

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CAG of the Blacklance HQ
"Canadian and proud of it"-TC
 
It's also not called the Cynicism Chat Zone. Just chill, TC.
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If I'm locked on, there's no such thing as evasive action!
 
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I'll buy some of those books this weekend...
I've seen at least one.

TC: Colonel, comparisons are inevitable. Each has its own universe, but there are parallels.
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Try to read the ones you can get in order.

Wish I had done that.

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If I'm locked on, there's no such thing as evasive action!
 
Just in case you didn't know, the order based on when they were published is different from the order you read them in. I would recommend the following order.

Action Stations (pre WCI)

Freedom Flight (around the time of SM2 and after)

End Run (Between Special Ops2 and WCIII)

Fleet Action (Shortly after End Run, right before WCIII)

WCIII: Heart of the Tiger (Novelization of WCIII)

False Colors (Between WCIII and WCIV)

WCIV: The Price of Freedom (Novelization of WCIV)

I've not ready the movie novels, they would fall into the gap between Action Stations and Freedom Flight.

[This message has been edited by Shane (edited July 05, 2000).]
 
Joey, if I were you I'd buy them all as soon as possible. You can get them all from online stores like Amazon, and you can worry about End Run later. They're not that expensive (what? $5 a piece?). Avoid ending up like those Kilrathi Saga people who go "Aargh, I've seen it so many times on the shelves, if only I had bought it when I had the chance!" all the time. It's not worth it
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I concur with Kris. My order is listed there if you happen to get all of them. Get the ones you can while they are still there. You might also try used book stores, if there are any close to you. I've had a lot of luck finding out-of-print items at that kind of store, also sometimes comic book shops have a section of old books.
 
Now, now, Kris, nobody talks like that... they go "I've seen Kilrathi Saga on the shelf so many times, but I never bought it... and now I can't! And that's not fair! It's my god given right! I *HAVE* to be able to buy it for less than it's available for! It's all an evil EA conspiracy against me!"
 
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