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Chris
Smith (www.smithchris.com) designed the covers of The Priest Wonho's
Memories of Admiral Yi.
Chris also did
the covers for M. F. Sawyer's second book, co-written with Dalia Shah,
Married To Islam.
These books are
available
here. |
. . . The Front Cover
There
have been many questions about the covers of The Priest Wonho's Memories of Admiral Yi.
Regarding the front:
The dragon represents power and magic for both good and evil all over east
and southeast Asia. In this case the dragon symbolizes Admiral Yi, powerful, strong, and fearful to
any enemy, yet at the same time the best of friends.
The sun of course represents Japan.
The country of the samurai was indeed "The Land of the Rising Sun" as seen from the geographical perspective of
Korea and China.
The sea separates Korea and Japan, and was
the battleground upon which Admiral Yi won his incredible series of great victories.
The ship
silhouetted against the sun is a kobukson, one of Admiral Yi's "Turtle Ships." These masterfully
designed dragon-headed armor-plated 16th century battleships were used by perfection by Admiral Yi to,
yes, block the "Sun" from fully taking over the land of Korea.
. . . Information about all of Mark's books, indluding The Real Man's Sex Book and the upcoming The Shiva Paradox is at |
Admiral
Yi- the Best, ever???
Of primarily land commanders, only Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan can match
Admiral Yi, and at sea only Horatio Nelson could be rated a peer.
About these four in individual combat, it seems likely that:
- Alexander would
beat the other three on foot. With a sword he was fearless and he had the speed of an Olympic champion.
- Genghis Khan would win on horseback, if for no other reason than that
in his era the cavalry had stirrups, which the Macedonians never had.
- Nelson
with dueling pistols would have had a chance. Here his one-armed tiny body and steel nerves could still have been
a deadly combination.
- Admiral Yi with a bow and
set of arrows would likely have mowed the others down before they got close. He was rated as superb in Korea, then the land
of the best long-distance archers in the world.
Tactically and strategically,
a person could argue forever about who was supreme among these four. None of them ever lost a major battle. - Alexander started as a Prince, became King, and then was Emperor of
lands from India to the Mediterranean
- Genghis Khan
started as a chieftain who unified nomadic tribes into a nation, and then put fear into the whole of the known world.
- Nelson rose through the ranks to command the best navy on earth, and
used it to win victory after victory against number two, France, and number three, Spain.
- Admiral Yi also rose through the ranks, and he took a small, ill-equipped,
mostly untrained group of fishermen and conscripts and used them repeatedly to beat the most fearsome warriors of Asia and
perhaps the world, the samurai of what would soon be the Shogun's Japan.
Sadly, until now Admiral Yi has stayed relatively unknown in
the west. Only military historians and East Asian specialists have heard more than a passing mention of this superb hero.
The
Priest Wonho's
Memories of Admiral Yi
was written in part to change that.
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