The Sword and Laser discussion

Hi, I am on Chapter 7 and at first I thought the book was "meh" but now I am really, really into it. I have the stinky old cover. And I KNOW I should never judge a book by it's cover but one look at the kid cowering by Jeremy Iron's leg on the cover and I cringed. I kind of wish I had the cool boat cover.
So, this question is to you other readers who are feeling my pain: who do we think the old guy on the cover is? Is it Burrich? Is it Chade? The dog in the picture leads me to believe it is Burrich (although the boy looks much older than 6, when he hung with Nosy). And the weasel is also in the picture...hmm.
Chade is supposed to have horrible scars, but the boy is supposed to have dark hair. Who do you think it is?

I am thinking it is Chade and Nosy. I don't think he has the right coloring to be Burrich, and isn't big enough. :-)

I think its Chade because he is the only character with a weasel in the book.

He's also wearing the clothes that Chade is almost always described to be wearing.

I think you may be right. I was looking for scars. The weasel does kind of throw me. He does look like Jeremy Irons, though. LOL.http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000460/

To realize who the characters are, you must first realize that the artist that creates the cover of a book rarely, if ever, reads the actual book. They get a quick synopsis and pick out the "cool stuff" and mash it all together on the cover.

Fitz, Smithy and Chade

It's not Smithy. Smithy was a small, black dog. That is Nosy.

Smithy isn't that small "he was too big to pick up and hug anymore. I sat down and he came into my lap and I held him." Page 291

Nosy wouldn't make sense. he was at the beginning before Chade.

True, and Fitz was supposed to be darker haired than that, so even though Smithy was black the artist could have missed that point. Nosy was red, right?

Aren't they done in a weird bronze colour?

For those that would like a physical reference:



and not presumably this one:

I like all the first edition UK edition because for one they were the only hardcover editions of Assassin's Apprentice and Royal Assassin, and second they were done by John Howe who did the UK illustrations of Tolkien, and the skeches for The Peter Jackosn movies.

Just looked through all the editions, check out the Spanish one:


I must have missed when he bonded with a dragon.

dragons come later. :D

Kevin wrote: "I like all the first edition UK edition because for one they were the only hardcover editions of Assassin's Apprentice and Royal Assassin, and second they were done by John Howe who did the UK illu..."

LOL!!

I assumed it was Chade based on what he's wearing. No one else is described as wearing a grey robe.

Could it be Shrewd or Verity?

my copy came with this cover but i had checked out the old cover. I figured it was Chade, Fitz and Nosy, like you guys think, but the boy looks nothing like the Fitz in my head! nor Chade or even Nosy. I just thought did the illustrator actually read the book?

Nosy was still a puppy when Burrich did what he did. I still say its Smithy

It's even worse with the original covers for the third book in the trilogy, ASSASSIN'S QUEST.

The cover shows a major spoiler, something you don't see until the very end of the book, (view spoiler)[ You see a character, maybe the fool, maybe Kettricken, maybe Girl-on-a-Dragon riding a dragon while Fitz holds a sword and Nighteyes howls. So you go through the whole book wondering when someone is going to ride a freaking dragon. (hide spoiler)]

So yeah, I really hate cover spoilers, almost as much as I hate the fact that so many great fantasy books have covers that look like bad romance novels. It's one of my favorite things about my kindle, I can read good books without looking foolish. It's too bad I didn't get a kindle until after I was already 12 books into WHEEL OF TIME...