So anyone else hoping for a prologue? sometimes authors do that, release the prologue early to get people into it.

I'm hoping for any news about the book.

I must say, this blurb sounds much more promising:
"Four decades after the Oblivion Crisis, Tamriel is threatened anew by an ancient and all-consuming evil. It is Umbriel, a floating city that casts a terrifying shadow–for wherever it falls, people die and rise again.

And it is in Umbriel’s shadow that a great adventure begins, and a group of unlikely heroes meet. A legendary prince with a secret. A spy on the trail of a vast conspiracy. A mage obsessed with his desire for revenge. And Annaig, a young girl in whose hands the fate of Tamriel may rest . . . ."


If you can't judge a book by it's cover, than the cover artisthas failed at his job.

And I'm quite impressed with the cover. I was expecting a half naked woman with a sword and a dragon.

I hate when a blurb ends with an elipsis, but that's a minor complaint.

As for the cover art, I was expecting that until I read some of his other stuff. as has been said: Not. A. Hack.

And even so, if the book does wind up svcking, I'll just keep writing my own TES fanfictions, and get that "other project" published out here in realityland. And whether Infernal City is beyond compare or absolutely horrible I'll keep writing until I'm famous enough to write a TES novel myself to stack up with it. So keep your eyes open for it

eh, im not impressed. looks like someone drew a floating town (thats not very infernal looking, i might add) and slapped some oblivion looking filter on it. In fact, i think they tried a bit too hard to make it look like an "elder scrolls novel." color scheme, the magic cards font... its all superficial.

no offense to the artist, its hard to work from a blob like that.

the new blurb is just as bad as the first. sounds like a low-level DnD adventure, ugh.

/pessimism.

Indeed, that sounds alot better than what they'd previously given us...



Btw, does anybody else get the feeling that the whole crisis will be much less daunting if they're still allowed to use levitation? I really hope that he doesn't lessen the vitality of magick in TES just to make it harder for the heroes.

You make a point. Yes, I do feel he will throw the magicka in a potato sack and toss it in the river. I believe the shadow of the city to likely have the same effect on mages as the anti-magicka field, in High Rock, numidium caused.

Hmn, re-reading the blurb....it seems possible the 'shadow' the city casts is more metaphorical... a 'Terrifying Shadow' for wherever (the city) falls, people die & rise again.
Just ruminating.

Oh my god, however unlikely it is, this would be so incredibly awesome

just another note ive thought of:
the artist probably doenst know any more about the story than we do. from what i know they are rarely given more than a general description of the scene ("floating city over mountainous countryside") - so any sort of resemblance to the dwemer, maomer, spaceships, etc. is likely coincidental.

i also want to mention that i think its a huge copout to skip 40 years. oblivion left us so much potential (political, societal, mythological...) and yet we get a book about "ZOMG ancient evil necro city kill it with fire." I hope that it at least glances over what happened in the time after oblivion instead of simply reinventing Tamriel's sociopolitical landscape. In fact, im becoming quite afraid that it will just use the time gap to introduce some crazy new 'lore' like the redguards and dunmer teaming up and taking over skyrim or something

though maomer really could be cool

I like the cover art. Compare the city to the mountains. The scale is epic. That city must truly be a sight to behold, at least until you die.

And that second blurb sounds much better. Revenge, conspiracies, but still we have to have the young girl who controls Tamriel's fate, although that's probably not any more fanciful than Barenziah's story.

As long as there's Khajiit six its all good...

With all the barbed detail that encompasses.

Nah. We've had enough of that.

Now what we need is some Argonian six. Maybe a spear polishing or two? Eh?

Anyone else think the cities architecture looks very Dunmeri?

What type of Dunmeri architecture do you mean? Each House has a style all its own for the most part. I think it bears more resemblance to Dwemer architecture, myself.

Hopefully there will be more detail than saying "And a few years after the Oblivion Crisis, a new emperor was named. So, moving right along . . ."

Keyes is good at writing about groups of adventurers, though, as can be seen in "The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone". He brought together a young mage/scholar, a knight, a willful princess, and a ranger without making them cliches.

http://bestgamewallpapers.com/files/elder-scrolls-3-morrowind/dwemer-ruins.jpg http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/0345508017/ref=dp_image_text_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books

I really hope that Keyes has the political landscape change significantly from where it was in Oblivion. I also hope that at least a few significant events happened in between for the characters to deal with. New and unexpected alliances, old alliances breaking up completely, and minor wars. (Example, Nords and Orcs seem pretty tight in Oblivion, teaming up to kick Morrowind's ass. I hope they start killing eachother. Two warlike races with bad history, anyone?). Oodles of new lore would be good too.

There are also certain groups I fully expect to hate this book completely. Not because of the content or style, but because of who'se writing it (or rather, who isn't). It's an unfortunate fact that some people put more store on the author's name than on the quality of a piece of work.

I doubt it will be necromancers who sent that flying city. It is just too hard to believe they would bother floating over the IC, when they'd be more with reviving Manimarco after his inglorious demise.
My bet is on the Sloads, as they are capable necromancers, though perhaps they are too unknown to the wider audience to get the main role...

As for Lycanthropic_Nerev's ideas of war, I'm not sure either. Orcs are said to be at good terms with the Bretons as of late and the Nords already have their share of territory extension (the war of Bend'r-Mahk).
Does anyone remember what the rumors from OB were? Trouble on Summerset etc. Perhaps they give hints on what has happened directly after the Oblivion crisis.

I hope Keyes uses politics where the game of Oblivion did not (like... almost everywhere).

Double ugh. :yuck: Not that I don't like Forgotten Realms lore - I just don't like it seeping into TES. Right now, it's looking too much like a City of Shades clone.

Report me to the watch?


They remind me of Velothi dome towers, but that's probably my mind seeing what it wants to. In all likelihood, the artist knew sod all about TES.



Though Umbriel is at least an elven name. Dark King, or something like that, would be the translation. Though if Tamriel is Dawn's Beauty, is Umbriel the opposite, of nightime?

Now I know what it really is! Space dwemer from Masser! They didn't absorbicded in the Numidium, they all teleported to Masser and now are trying to get back home. However, the flying saucer has issues with landing, and keeps smashing towns and people, with magical run off causing the dead to rise.

YES I AM GOOD!

Wow, what if they were some evil re-incarnation of the dwemer-numidium, that would be just weird...