10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic Little Reference Book, May 12, 2009
This review is from: The Mythical Creatures Bible: The Definitive Guide to Legendary Beings (Paperback)
This book may be small, but like many other books in the "bible series" it is packed with valuable information. I greatly recommend this book if you are looking for a quick reference on a huge variety of mythical creatures. I find this book to work best as a quick intro to the many varied and unique creatures. You'll obviously have to do more research on your own if you want lots of detail as this book only devotes a paragraph to a page per creature, but browsing through here will definitely get your curiosity rolling, especially if you are an aspiring writer. The illustrations are also wonderful, they really help sort of bring the creatures to life, I mean let's face it, as wonderful as the the imagination is, with some of the very outlandish descriptions of these creatures it is hard to picture in your mind exactly what they might look like, but this book does an excellent job of beautifully illustrating almost every creature. Highly recommended to anyone interested in mythical creatures.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful and wonderful, July 18, 2009
This review is from: The Mythical Creatures Bible: The Definitive Guide to Legendary Beings (Paperback)
I bought this for my sister-in-law. She called the day she received it to tell me how beautiful the book is. The information provided was just what she was looking for. She is thoroughly enjoying this book.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A fine compendium of both familiar and lesser-known creatures, October 3, 2010
This review is from: The Mythical Creatures Bible: The Definitive Guide to Legendary Beings (Paperback)
Brenda Rosen's _The Mythical Creatures Bible_ stretches a bit to embrace the breadth of a definitive "bible" of all legendary creatures. A small book, only 5½" x 6½" by 1", it nonetheless manages a wide range of entries, many of which readers may not have encountered before. Though the accompanying text for each creature comprises only a paragraph or two, the book still manages to enlighten.
Author Rosen breaks the categories of creatures into "Fabulous Animals," "Creatures from the Shadow World," "Nature Spirits," and "Sacred Creatures." Fabulous Animals looks at the weird animals found in bestiaries from Greek myths, Marco Polo, and local folklore, including a large section on dragons from all parts of the world. Other odd animals noted include the Bishop Fish, Sedna, Yale, and Feng Huang. Creatures of the Shadow World covers the more malevolent entities, including werecreatures, black dogs, Vetala, Popobawa, Draugr, and Wendigo. Nature Spirits include descriptions of nymphs, Huldra, Undine, Peri, and Uldar and more. Sacred Creatures looks at the divine beasts, gods, and demigods of Egypt, Greece, Scandinavia, the East and elsewhere, including beings from the Bible.
Filled with illustrations ranging in quality from pleasant to glorious, this book is not only a fine resource for facts but also a visual treat, especially when depicting lesser-known creatures. Seeing images of creatures rarely depicted helps form an image in the reader's mind that reinforces the text.
So while this may not qualify as a primary source for research, it's a fascinating read for anyone who wants to know more about the strange beings that may or may not inhabit this small, blue planet and the heavens surrounding it.
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