Customer Reviews

Discovery of Dragons

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
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This book is fantastic. The pictures are quite impressive and the humor is good too. This book can be read by children, but is even better when read by older readers. Dragon fans MUST check this out.

All of Graeme Base's books are wonderful, and this is no exception. It is visually spectacular (what else would you expect with such a topic!) and the narrative keeps you entertained as well.

This is a book which has universal appeal. It is fantastic enough to appeal to younger readers, and has enough impact as an "art" book to appeal to people who like great visual books on their coffee tables.

It is a lovely, witty and frivolous book. Just what everyone needs!

I love this book! Not only are the pictures gorgeous (is there a calendar format of this?) but the letters are hilarious and I never cease to find something new each time I look at it. For example, those who have read it know that Dr. E. F. Liebermann was looking for frilled frogs and accidentally happened upon the dragons, but was disappointed at the lack of frogs. But there's a frilled frog hidden in every picture!! This book is witty, beautiful, and enchanting. I have to buy another 2 copies for friends!!

This is the kind of book you leave on a coffee table for visitors to peruse. It has beautiful large color plates of dragons on every left-side page and amusing anecdotes on each facing page.

The author is presuming to be an authority on "the discovery of dragons" and in a tongue-in-cheek narrative is trying to professionally prove the disclaimers of his "one time colleague Marty Fibblewitz" who has now "chosen to side with the doubters." THE DISCOVERY OF DRAGONS is divided into three sections of nine pages each: The Discovery of European Dragons, The Discovery of Asiatic Dragons, and The Discovery of Tropical Dragons. The first page of each section is an introduction to the section that describes the distinctive qualities of the dragons of said region, introduces the adventurer who discovered those dragons, and throws pot-shots at 'Professor' Fibblewitz. The following eight pages of each subsection show the author's 'proof' of these discoveries.

European dragons, says the author, were discovered by Bjorn of Bromme, Viking, from A.D. 856 through A.D. 863. He discovered Great Snow Dragons in Greenland, an Emerald Dragon in Ireland, a Welsh Red Dragon sleeping on a horde of treasure, and the St. George Dragon (yes, that very same dragon). The author's proof comes in the way of letters found, scrawled penmanship on linen to his cousin Olaf back in Norway (who seems to be having his own problems Rampaging the countryside).

In The Discovery of Asiatic Dragons, we meet heroine Soong Mei Ying, faithful daughter of a thirteenth-century Chinese Silk trader, who--while taking her ailing father's silks to a far away market--discovers a pair of Mongolian Screamers, a Japanese Butterfly Lizard with medicinal qualities, and Eastern Temple Worm, and a Great Golden Worm.

Now, the Letters of Dr. E.F. Liebermann in The Discovery of Tropical Dragons might be just a tad funnier than those of Bjorn of Bromme (it's a close tie, actually). Dr. Liebermann went to Africa in 1847 searching for the African Frilled Frog. He never finds this frog, but along the way he discovers four kinds of dragon (Livingstone's Demon, the Crested Dipper, a monstrous Common Green Draak, and several deadly Spotted Marsh Draaks). He also invents the typewriter and figures out the theory of continental drift.

This is an adorable book! Each section has its own style, and the characters--illuminated by their letters home--are unique individuals with great quirks. Each page is laden with tiny details that enthralled this reader. The letters home all have subtle changes as the adventurer passes from one discovery into the next--some of them quite hilarious. There's footnotes and maps and scale diagrams and miniature picture story reels across the bottom of each page . . . all done in glorious and changing detail work. But the best part are the dragon plates themselves: these large color paintings are gorgeous. THE DISCOVERY OF DRAGONS is a real winner, the perfect gift choice for a true dragon connoisseur.

"The discovery of dragons" is an academic textwrittenby Rowland W. Greasebeam B.Sc., the author of such works as"Uncle Greasebeam's big book of scarey dragons" and"Hiss or myth?" (or possibly by Graeme Base). Despite thedefection of his one-time collegue Marty Fibblewitz, Mr Greasebeam haspublished facsimiles of letters written by three great dragondiscoverers, with explanatory notes.

The book features colourillustrations, the known world distrobution of the discovered dragons,and handy diagrams indicating size. For example, the Common GreenDraak can be recognised by it's stench, call: "DRAAAAAKDRAAAAAK," carnivorous nature, and the fact that it is abouttwice the size of an elephant, whereas the more dainty JapaneseButterfly Lizard can be quickly seen to be only about the size of amouse. (This could be very useful to Dragon Watchers, as one would notwant to confuse the two!)

As well as dragon afficionados, this bookwould appeal to readers of "Lady Cottington's Pressed FairyBook."

I stumbled upon this book when I was looking around in the Children's Section (yes, I do that), for the role-playing books. Terribly annoying that they put role-playing in that same category, but oh well, I'm not so prideful that I won't go there. And I found, much to my surprise, a similar outcast - Base's books are written with amusement and sophistication, and while they could be entertaining if read to a child, they are not children's books. This one is gorgeous, with the dragons fully rendered, amusing (and fictional) notes in reference to them from various explorers, tiny cartoons in the framing illustrating the stories involving the dragons, and maps of the world which show where the dragon comes from. Also, the dragons have a size comparison, from a man (who happens to be running away in the silhouette comparison), to an elephant. The only flaw? A jungle dragon described as a "massive beast" in the text and shown to be much larger than a man in the cartoon frame, is shown as the size of a cat on the size-comparison silhouettes. An impressive side note: Base did the artwork too! ...

This book is basically a reference book on Dragons, written af if they really existed and were found by explorers and adventure seekers.

The book is funny, clever, and the illustrations are very impressive (the Amazon.com preview pages don't show much).

If you have kids over 7 and they love fantasy (and most kids do) I think they will enjoy this book.

The book is entertaining for adults also (as a matter of fact, a thirtysomething relative borrowed the book and still has not returned it!).

Check it out!

This book is the one of the most unique and exsquisite dragon books available! I received it only recently, but I am astounded at this spectacular selection.
It begins with the letters from Bjorn of Bromme, a 9th century viking. This section is the funniest one in the book. This humor is very hard to describe, you'll have to read it yourself to get the idea. Anyway, this viking travels to many countries for various (and often humorous) reasons. On the way, he discovers four different species of European dragons, while writing letters to his cousin Olaf the Grim about his incredible finds. What is unique about this section is that he loses men every time he finds another dragon!
The next section is my personal favorite. A 13th century girl named Soong Mei Ying had a sick father. In order to pay for her father's medical bills, she sets out to Kathmandu, in the hope of gaining money by selling her father's silks. Unfortunetly, the curageous girl's silks are destroyed by a pair of Mongolian Screamers (a kind of dragon she discovers). As she glumly returns home, she discovers a Japanese Butterfly Lizard (my favorite dragon in the book) that could heal her father. This discovery leads her on a fantastic adventure, in which she discovers two more dragons.
The final section in "Discovery of Dragons" tells of the adventures of Prussian cartographer Dr. E. F. Liebermann. He wants to prove the theory of continental drift and so travels from Africa to Madagascar to Tasmania in search of the rare African Frilled Frog that can prove his theory. Instead, however, he discovers four extremely bizarre dragon species. He types letters to his sweetheart on a typewriter he built himself and, unfortunetly, he meets a meets a tragic end.
You will love this very unique book. You'll be surprised by the Saint George Dragon, dazzled by the Japanese Butterfly Lizard, and repulsed by the "unique" Common Green Draak of Madagascar. This book seems to be a mix of a storybook and a zoology book. The illustrations, as mentioned before, are beautiful and detailed and there is one for every dragon. Look and read closely to find little things hidden in it. Sorry about the stereotypical phrase, but you won't be able to put this book down!

I always love Graeme Base's artwork, and this was no exception. I agree, too, with his sense of humor, which is probably pitched a bit high for children. My only argument with this particular book is that I wish the artwork had been treated better. The illustrations were originally for a calendar with nearly square format. The book has a conventional "portrait" format, with the major illustrations covering the entire right-hand page and extending onto the left. Since they weren't planned for this format, important detail is often lost in the gutter and that's a shame.

This book is wonderfully written as if it was true. The book is full of beautiful illustrations of ancient world dragons. It's a children's written for the parents