The Plan:
The cover image should show The Game (And some 'tasteful' flesh) with a heavy preponderance of the dark structures around the room. This is 'Coz, like the crystal 'Cradle', it's the central, linking image through the novel.
I bow to Andy for pointing this out in the very beginning.
 
The first section is a whirlwind of great and varied images but I think we need to see the sheer panoply of the Celebration, of Mery's manifestation as The Mother Redoubt (It is, after all, the defining moment of her Myth) and, if poss, the violent downfall of the 17. That's quite a lot in one picture!
 
The second section has many images - though not so many as the first (I'm sorely tempting by Pallin dressing in his armour) - but the image to choose must certainly be one from the Land. This narrows it down a little.
 
I really do NOT want to draw The Watcher because however well I might manage it, it'll merely be a 'Monster' which we can stare at and 'map'. As I understand, the appearance of the Watcher is entirely subjective and it's not so much its physiognomy that matters so much as its 'Personality'. This might be possible as an abstract painting but not for my pedestrian graphic style (Unless, of course, you want me to do the whole thing with a hint of 'Abstract', I suspect not. It seems we want to keep something of a 'House style' in keeping with 'Eater'). Accordingly, like God, to portray the Watcher is to lessen it. (Tempting though it is, as always, to rip off Frantisek Kupka's Black Idol).
 
Meyr in a Palaquin is just a Palaquin, so we want her out of it.
 
If the Redoubt is in the pic, then it's going to be the whole pic. It's big. That's either 'Leaving the gates' or just the massive subtly textured walls of the Redoubt. Neither shows the Land.
The Redoubt from afar is just a pyramid. More important, it 's presence trivialises the abyss of the Land.
 
Images of skulls, sex organs, ghost girls etc could be a little prosaic.
 
I think we're left with the Eater 'Ravishing' Meyr whilst the Quint's attempt to stave it off and Pallin watches, helpless. This, in itself, has some Symbolist resonance.
 
 
As to the third section: To quote HAL, 'I'm still collating'.
It's almost certainly going to be of the Manshonyagger (We can't ignore them can we!)and Meyr being Joan D'Ark-y, but I haven't identified the specific incident as yet. As we all know, there are a fair few.
 
And, maybe a small 'title' 'symbolic image' for the beginning of each of the three sections would be stylish.
 
All ok?

Best:
Smuzz
 
----- Original Message -----
From: Brett Davidson
To: Andy Robertson ; SMS
Sent: Monday, February 07, 2011 7:23 PM
Subject: RE: Night land : Sea of images.

What, no waterslide?! :)  Many of the phenomena I think of being like dust devils passing across a desert.  The weird stuff gets crowded when the party is explicitly within the zone of the Watcher, effectively its mental penumbra, where they catch its stray thoughts and equivalents of its self-commentary and under-the-breath mutterings.


From: pinlighter@btconnect.com
To: eira.sms@virgin.net; bidavids@hotmail.com
Subject: Re: Night land : Sea of images.
Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2011 15:20:14 +0000

You 'da man   ;-)
----- Original Message -----
From: eira.sms
My one disagreement so far is on the idea of the Land Itself as a cluttered diaroma of illuminated psychic tourist attractions.
My 'Land' is a darned sight more bleak.
And, I'm Right.. Ok?