The Sword and Laser discussion

I once heard that it is a good idea for authors to 'not' describe the characters too precisely. That it was best to let the readers imagination fill in the blanks.

With aliens, this is fun. I enjoy looking at fan art and all the drawings people do.

I thought Nessus had one head on a neck with the second head being a stump where the brain was. I also pictured Kzin more like Chewbacca.

The GoT fan art was great before the TV show clouded everyone's imagination.

But they have to have a head where the hands would be, hence the nickname Puppeteers, no? Like it looks like they're making hand puppets

What's interesting is that the 1975 paperback edition of the book I have includes two drawings of Nessus. Inside the front cover is a relatively straightforward white-on-black depiction, but the back cover includes a skeletal drawing of the Puppeteer, reminiscent of an exhibit at a dinosaur museum.

Something I do find fascinating though is the different interpretations people have of verbal descriptions. Sometimes the disparity is quite wide indeed.

In my opinion an author should describe a being well enough to impart its aspects relevant to the story. Even so, everyone who reads it is likely to conjure a different image in their mind.

(Another interesting page in my 1975 edition is the advertisement for a novelisation of Mel Brooks' "Young Frankenstein.")