Barlowe's Guide to Fantasy: Creatures Great and Small from the Best Fantasy and Horror... [Paperback]

Wayne Douglas Barlowe (Author), Neil Duskis (Author), Neiol Duskis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1996

In his classic Guide to Extraterrestials, Wayne Douglas Barlowe brought us science fiction's greatest aliens. Now he does the same for the bizarre and beautiful beings of a thousand years of fantasy and horror.

Here is the Unicorn, still shimmering from the imagination of The Last Unicorn author Peter S. Beagle. Here in all its disgusting glory lurks H. P. Lovecraft's Gug, along with Robert Jordan's Trolloc. Here you will meet Marion Zimmer Bradley's Morgaine from The Mists of Avalon, Conan-creator Robert E. Howard's Bran Mak Morn, Clive Barker's Gek AGek, Drool Rockworm from Stephen R. Donaldson's Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, and many wondrous more.

Fifty fantastic creatures in all. Awesome, incredible, startling, disturbing, these creatures are all rendered with exquisite accuracy and excruciating detail. Barlowe's Guide to Fantasy is the essential companion for anyone who has ever been thrilled by the terrifying and wonderful creatures found in fantastic literature, and wished to see them brought to life by a modern master.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Wayne D. Barlowe, often called the "Audubon of the Otherworld," was classically trained in fine arts and illustration at The Art Students League and Cooper Union in New York City. He has illustrated literally hundreds of fantasy and science fiction books and stories. His own bestselling creations include the acclaimed Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials, Expedition , and the upcoming Barlowe's Pilgrimage to Hell .

Product Details

• Paperback: 136 pages
• Publisher: HarperPrism; First Edition edition (November 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061008176
• ISBN-13: 978-0061008177
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 6.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,361,664 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great, but not as great..., October 13, 1998

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This review is from: Barlowe's Guide to Fantasy: Creatures Great and Small from the Best Fantasy and Horror... (Paperback)

I anticipated the publishing of this book as I have few others. Any companion volume to Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials would have to be a plus, right? Well, sort of. The selection of characters is very diverse, but the paintings look very rushed, and incomplete in some cases. Furthermore the text is not very descriptive of the characters. It's more like reading a synopsis of the novels than information about that particular entry. Definitely not as inspired as Barlowe's previous work, but it's wonderful, nonetheless. I wish I could give it 9 on a 10 scale.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not as Good as the Sci-Fi Guide, March 7, 2009

By 

Michael J. Tresca "Talien" (Fairfield, CT USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Barlowe's Guide to Fantasy (Hardcover)

Of the guides, this one is the weaker of the two. For one, Barlowe seems to pick his subjects at random...we see monsters that had minor roles in the various books where they were portrayed (and thus, we probably didn't have a burning interest to see what they looked like if they were minor characters in the books). There's quite a few human subjects in this one as well...and they seem out of place here, as some of them are rather plain (okay, so maybe the golem did look like the Pillsbury Dough Boy...but why put him in the book?). There's also several shape shifters, which Barlowe illustrates by showing them in "mid-form", which doesn't tell us much about what they really look like. If anything, Barlowe's work competes with itself -- I was spoiled by his Science Fiction guide and this one, while definitely a beautiful addition to any collector's shelf, simply cannot match the detail of that book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "The incredible artwork, the detail...the man's a genius.", May 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Barlowe's Guide to Fantasy: Creatures Great and Small from the Best Fantasy and Horror... (Paperback)

The Guide to Fantasy by Wayne Barlowe is a superb look into the minds of authors and one man's ideas of what the character looks like. Full-color illustrations really capture your eyes. I'm in awe of the man.