Iain (M) Banks Related Art...
Moderator: Beowulf
With the power of the Wayback Machine, I have retrieved three CG images from the abyssal depths of web-pages past.
I'm really not sure what this one is. Ahah, it's the 'orrible flayed head thing from 'Feersum Endjinn'.
This may be an Effector of some sort:
And this is a very
s
p
o
i
l
e
r
t
a
s
t
i
c
chair.
I'm really not sure what this one is. Ahah, it's the 'orrible flayed head thing from 'Feersum Endjinn'.
This may be an Effector of some sort:
And this is a very
s
p
o
i
l
e
r
t
a
s
t
i
c
chair.
- The Grim Squeaker
- Emperor's Hand
- Posts: 10315
- Joined: 2005-06-01 01:44am
- Location: A different time-space Continuum
- Contact:
The Effector looks good, though the chair's "cushion" looks odd.
Good pics, source?
Good pics, source?
Photography
Genius is always allowed some leeway, once the hammer has been pried from its hands and the blood has been cleaned up.
To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.
Genius is always allowed some leeway, once the hammer has been pried from its hands and the blood has been cleaned up.
To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.
- Admiral Valdemar
- Outside Context Problem
- Posts: 31572
- Joined: 2002-07-04 07:17pm
- Location: UK
I always liked the old covers by Orion, the ones I have before their reprints last year. Now they seem duller and less related in ways, a bit like any children's' book adult cover version.
If you want BAD covers, then just look at anything by Baen Books. The Bolo novels have some wacky artists interpretations what they look like (though I doubt they ever read the books to get a description).
If you want BAD covers, then just look at anything by Baen Books. The Bolo novels have some wacky artists interpretations what they look like (though I doubt they ever read the books to get a description).
What shape were those culture warships inside Pittance?Big Orange wrote: See that is how I almost exactly picture a Affronter to look like so I don't understand what Surlethe is getting at with Banks not being florrid enough in describing aliens, planets or ships.
EBC|Fucking Metal|Artist|Androgynous Sexfiend|Gozer Kvltist|
Listen to my music! http://www.soundclick.com/nihilanth
"America is, now, the most powerful and economically prosperous nation in the country." - Master of Ossus
Listen to my music! http://www.soundclick.com/nihilanth
"America is, now, the most powerful and economically prosperous nation in the country." - Master of Ossus
I used the Internet Archive to find a few of the pictures that used to be hosted at http://www.excession.swinternet.co.uk/ , the defunct site Xalev posted earlier.DEATH wrote:The Effector looks good, though the chair's "cushion" looks odd.
Good pics, source?
- Alan Bolte
- Sith Devotee
- Posts: 2611
- Joined: 2002-07-05 12:17am
- Location: Columbus, OH
You want a bad cover, check out the recent title The Algebraist. Actual space squid. Totally unrelated to the book.
Any job worth doing with a laser is worth doing with many, many lasers. -Khrima
There's just no arguing with some people once they've made their minds up about something, and I accept that. That's why I kill them. -Othar
Avatar credit
There's just no arguing with some people once they've made their minds up about something, and I accept that. That's why I kill them. -Othar
Avatar credit
- The Grim Squeaker
- Emperor's Hand
- Posts: 10315
- Joined: 2005-06-01 01:44am
- Location: A different time-space Continuum
- Contact:
Alan Bolte wrote:You want a bad cover, check out the recent title The Algebraist. Actual space squid. Totally unrelated to the book.
Photography
Genius is always allowed some leeway, once the hammer has been pried from its hands and the blood has been cleaned up.
To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.
Genius is always allowed some leeway, once the hammer has been pried from its hands and the blood has been cleaned up.
To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.
- Alan Bolte
- Sith Devotee
- Posts: 2611
- Joined: 2002-07-05 12:17am
- Location: Columbus, OH
Yes, I know the UK cover was better.
Any job worth doing with a laser is worth doing with many, many lasers. -Khrima
There's just no arguing with some people once they've made their minds up about something, and I accept that. That's why I kill them. -Othar
Avatar credit
There's just no arguing with some people once they've made their minds up about something, and I accept that. That's why I kill them. -Othar
Avatar credit
- Big Orange
- Emperor's Hand
- Posts: 7105
- Joined: 2006-04-22 05:15pm
- Location: Britain
They looked like metallic cylanders with hieroglyphic like patterns traced along their hulls.Rye wrote:What shape were those culture warships inside Pittance?Big Orange wrote: See that is how I almost exactly picture a Affronter to look like so I don't understand what Surlethe is getting at with Banks not being florrid enough in describing aliens, planets or ships.
The patterns were spirals from what I recall, but their overall shape was never really described. I imagined them to be big irregular upside down pyramidine things that looked sort of like the ship from flight of the navigator, covered in spirals.
The affront were better described, but I pictured them more like the Nihilanth from half life, only without the body and arms, (omnidirectional tentacle locations) with two beaks and snail eyes, with another balloon on top.
The affront were better described, but I pictured them more like the Nihilanth from half life, only without the body and arms, (omnidirectional tentacle locations) with two beaks and snail eyes, with another balloon on top.
EBC|Fucking Metal|Artist|Androgynous Sexfiend|Gozer Kvltist|
Listen to my music! http://www.soundclick.com/nihilanth
"America is, now, the most powerful and economically prosperous nation in the country." - Master of Ossus
Listen to my music! http://www.soundclick.com/nihilanth
"America is, now, the most powerful and economically prosperous nation in the country." - Master of Ossus
Well, I'll shut the hell up, then!
EBC|Fucking Metal|Artist|Androgynous Sexfiend|Gozer Kvltist|
Listen to my music! http://www.soundclick.com/nihilanth
"America is, now, the most powerful and economically prosperous nation in the country." - Master of Ossus
Listen to my music! http://www.soundclick.com/nihilanth
"America is, now, the most powerful and economically prosperous nation in the country." - Master of Ossus
- Big Orange
- Emperor's Hand
- Posts: 7105
- Joined: 2006-04-22 05:15pm
- Location: Britain
Nah, I imagine an Affronter when fully suited up would look similar to a Combine Advisor:Rye wrote:
The affront were better described, but I pictured them more like the Nihilanth from half life, only without the body and arms, (omnidirectional tentacle locations) with two beaks and snail eyes, with another balloon on top.
- Vanas
- Jedi Council Member
- Posts: 1808
- Joined: 2005-03-12 05:31pm
- Location: Surfing the Moho
- Contact:
Look to Windward has a description of a GSV that is good enough to make a drawing from, I'd say.
Of course, they're a lot more impressive on the inside.
If I could draw with any skill, the description in that book would be the one to use for a GSV
Of course, they're a lot more impressive on the inside.
If I could draw with any skill, the description in that book would be the one to use for a GSV
According to wikipedia, "the Mohorovičić discontinuity is the boundary between the Earth's crust and the mantle."
According to Starbound, it's a problem solvable with enough combat drugs to turn you into the Incredible Hulk.
According to Starbound, it's a problem solvable with enough combat drugs to turn you into the Incredible Hulk.
- Elheru Aran
- Emperor's Hand
- Posts: 13073
- Joined: 2004-03-04 01:15am
- Location: Georgia
I stand corrected that Banks' descriptions are good enough to objectively piece together a picture, but if I were right, my conclusion would be right, dammit!Big Orange wrote:It's pretty much a non-issue when Banks can be quite florrid on occasion and you could piece together what a GSV looks like, what some of the characters look like and what being on a Culture orbital is like.
A Government founded upon justice, and recognizing the equal rights of all men; claiming higher authority for existence, or sanction for its laws, that nature, reason, and the regularly ascertained will of the people; steadily refusing to put its sword and purse in the service of any religious creed or family is a standing offense to most of the Governments of the world, and to some narrow and bigoted people among ourselves.
F. Douglass
- Admiral Valdemar
- Outside Context Problem
- Posts: 31572
- Joined: 2002-07-04 07:17pm
- Location: UK
Ships like the System class vessel Bora Horza Gobuchul were collections of ovoid like craft within a single massive (couple hundred klick long) field that was habitable. It was more like a small fleet than a single entity and we also know GSVs tend to have a triumvirate of Minds too. As for general shape, it depends on the class and I think we only really have the slab like Mountain class that was the Sleeper Service for proper description.
Banks DOES describe stuff (I know that some of his aliens have multiple arms, wings, etc), but it's really not as prevalent in his work as it is in others. I mean, the giant space cathedrals with broadsides and gunports of your average 40k description gives a lot more detail to my mind's eye than ships being described as cylindrical with spirals on the sides that make you go bog-eyed if you look at them too long. I mean, are they featureless aside from that? Do they have lights on them, or plates or normal-looking guns, does anything glow when they fight? I have no idea.Surlethe wrote:I stand corrected that Banks' descriptions are good enough to objectively piece together a picture, but if I were right, my conclusion would be right, dammit!Big Orange wrote:It's pretty much a non-issue when Banks can be quite florrid on occasion and you could piece together what a GSV looks like, what some of the characters look like and what being on a Culture orbital is like.
EBC|Fucking Metal|Artist|Androgynous Sexfiend|Gozer Kvltist|
Listen to my music! http://www.soundclick.com/nihilanth
"America is, now, the most powerful and economically prosperous nation in the country." - Master of Ossus
Listen to my music! http://www.soundclick.com/nihilanth
"America is, now, the most powerful and economically prosperous nation in the country." - Master of Ossus
- Big Orange
- Emperor's Hand
- Posts: 7105
- Joined: 2006-04-22 05:15pm
- Location: Britain
I win! (for once... )Surlethe wrote:I stand corrected that Banks' descriptions are good enough to objectively piece together a picture, but if I were right, my conclusion would be right, dammit!Big Orange wrote:It's pretty much a non-issue when Banks can be quite florrid on occasion and you could piece together what a GSV looks like, what some of the characters look like and what being on a Culture orbital is like.
Hey now, Sleeper Service was a Plate class.Admiral Valdemar wrote: As for general shape, it depends on the class and I think we only really have the slab like Mountain class that was the Sleeper Service for proper description.
Presumably the white cutout is the GSV.Elheru Aran wrote:...Uh, what? Is that sphere behind the white cut-out supposed to be the GSV? That makes no sense...
Here's a couple of cutaways of the Plate-class I made a while back, based on the dimensions given in Excession and The Player of Games:The Sleeper Service's external appearance remained the same as ever; a silvery ellipsoid ninety kilometres long, sixty across the beam and twenty in height.
Side view
http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/7471 ... assoq9.png
Top view
http://img468.imageshack.us/img468/3716 ... inttg7.png
The rectangle in the center is the main body of the ship. The ellipse is the outermost extent of the ship's external field structure. The blue in between is the atmosphere it carries. However, I'm not certain that the main hull of the ship is rectangular. The books are a bit vague on that part.
And here's the side view cutaway modified to represent the Sleeper Service after it went eccentric.
http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/5636/sleeperuv8.png
The brown at the top is its gas giant environment. The pale blue, as before, is terrestrial atmosphere, and the dark blue is water. The arrangement is just an estimate though, because the dimensions of the ocean and gas giant atmosphere was never stated exactly.
And, finally, the Excession itself:
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a139/ ... ession.png
All these pictures are 100 meters per pixel scale.
「かかっ―」
- NecronLord
- Harbinger of Doom
- Posts: 27383
- Joined: 2002-07-07 06:30am
- Location: The Lost City
While fighting, they tend to have their outer fields as either near-perfectly absorbative or reflective, hence either being black or mirrored spheres.
Does that count as glowing?
Also, I imagined the pittance ships as giant dildos covered in a sort of fractal-pattern.
Does that count as glowing?
Also, I imagined the pittance ships as giant dildos covered in a sort of fractal-pattern.
Superior Moderator - BotB - HAB [Drill Instructor]-Writer- Stardestroyer.net's resident Star-God.
"We believe in the systematic understanding of the physical world through observation and experimentation, argument and debate and most of all freedom of will." ~ Stargate: The Ark of Truth
"We believe in the systematic understanding of the physical world through observation and experimentation, argument and debate and most of all freedom of will." ~ Stargate: The Ark of Truth
- Big Orange
- Emperor's Hand
- Posts: 7105
- Joined: 2006-04-22 05:15pm
- Location: Britain
They were actually "slim segmented cylinders", although most ROUs would definitely look much more streamline, pointed, arrow-like or sword-like in comparison to GCUs and GSVs. And the "dildo" comment was made by a idiotic Culture bimbo in Excession.NecronLord wrote: Also, I imagined the pittance ships as giant dildos covered in a sort of fractal-pattern.
- Big Orange
- Emperor's Hand
- Posts: 7105
- Joined: 2006-04-22 05:15pm
- Location: Britain
Any somebody over at Spacebattles.com, is doing CGI images of the cylindrical ROUs seen in Excession. Good, eh?