Customer Reviews

A Practical Guide to Monsters

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Once upon a time, nearly thirty years ago a book called the Monster Manual was published by a company called TSR and legions of Dungeons & Dragons fans were pleased. Now we fast forward to 2007 and Wizards of the Coast publishing imprint, Mirrorstone, has released a Practical Guide to Monsters, sort of a Monster Manual Light although it isn't a role-playing game book. What it is a guide to all types of legendary creatures, good and evil (mostly evil) that has its roots firmly in the old D&D lore. The book is really a companion to Mirrorsone's line of juvenile and young adult fiction series of Dungeons & Dragons books such as the Knights of the Silver Dragon series. And while I haven't been a "young adult" in many a year, I've read several of these books and really enjoyed them. They're light, quicker, and action-oriented and don't have the pretensions that a lot of adult fantasy fiction has.

The book is sectioned by type of monsters: Creepy Crawler, Flying Fiends, Viperous Villains, Sneaky Shapeshifters, Gruesome Goblinoids, Mammoth Monsters, Unsightly Undead, Outworldly Outsiders, and Awful Aberrations. Fans of Dungeons & Dragons will recognize all of these monsters, some of which will not be common to many people. There's the terrible Bulette which bursts forth from underground to grab its prey. The Yuan-Ti is a race of half human and half snake creatures which are all evil. The Behir is a dragon-like creature that has a dozen legs and can breath out lightning bolts!

The Goblinoid section introduces us to goblins, Hobgoblins and Bugbears, while the mammoth monsters section covers Trolls, Giants, Ettins, and Ogres. Each listing provides a table of that monsters characteristics including their height, weight, habitat, society, diet, language, attack methods, and best defense. Find out the difference between a ghoul and a zombie, or between a Frost Giant and a Fire Giant. Along the way there are little notes on the pages written by the mage Zendric (One of the main characters in the Knights of the Silver series) recording his own remarks and observations. The illustrations in the book are simply gorgeous and produced by the same artists who do the work on the other Mirrorstone books.

This is a book that kids will really love. Who doesn't like monsters? But I think even old-time fans of D&D will enjoy looking through its pages to remind them of RPG days gone by. A lot of Fun! Look for the companion book, A Practical Guide to Dragons.

REVIEWED BY TIM JANSON

A Practical Guide to Monsters is a creative, fun and thorough guide to "real" monsters. The illustrations are gorgeous, and at times appropriately frightening. Kids of all ages will pour through the pages, exploring the story-like descriptions of each monster and gobbling up the important facts. I particularly like the details in this book, which include the drawings of lairs and the very descriptive notes that pop up on each page. A Practical Guide to Monsters makes a perfect gift and will be loved by young children who are monster curious to older teens who delve into role-playing. Whoever the reader, A Practical Guide to Monsters will be well-loved.

My 8 year old picked this out at the used bookstore. It is a wonderful guide to the monsters of the Dungeons and Dragons world. The artwork is fantastic and he loves just staring at the pictures. In addition the text is very simplistic, almost like a 2nd grade science book, giving factoids and interesting tidbits on each of the monsters. At the end of his there is a little quiz that they can take to "see if they are prepared."

Now my son loves to read so I expected him to read through it rather quickly, what I did not expect was for this book to suddenly go everywhere we do. Every time I tell him, "Grab a book we're headed to the Doctors," this is the book that comes with us.

For parents concerned that there might be something "improper" in this book - My son attends a Baptist Academy, and has had no issues with having this book at school, or with using it as part of his "Read Aloud" book in class. I have searched it from cover to cover prior to allowing it to go with him to school and have found no sign of Satan hiding anywhere within. All I have seen is my son having a great time and expanding his imagination.

Wonderful introduction to fantasy and the D&D world for the little guys.

So I lucked out yesterday and found a copy of this at a local big box store. I was quite surprised as normally, books like this don't appear there. So I grabbed it. I knew beforehand that this was not a normal D&D book. It didn't have stat blocks, detailed sections on ability, powers or tactics of the creatures inside it.

What it does have is tons of in character ways of explaining powers, abilty and tactics of the various monsters inside. I thought it was best used as a manual a character could purchase from a wizard or guild to provide them info that they could actually get. Crafty DMs should then be able to convert it over to some kind of knowledge boosting bonus dependant on the type of creature. It's full of tons of flavor text and basics that would work perfectly for lower level adventurers, especially if the players are not old hard vets of the game.

The illustrations inside are a lot of reprints from the Monster Manual, but when there is something new, it's well done. It's fits with a good introductory to monsters and even if it is made for kids or young readers, it fits for the older readers to.

this product was great i got it fast had no damadge its a fun bookto read realy well put together with its information.

I ordered this for my 11-year old son who likes to spend time sketching different types of monsters. He absolutely LOVES this book. It includes cool pictures of a variety of freaky monsters...plus it was inexpensive. Overall, a great purchase!

I have a seven-year-old nephew and I wanted to get him a neat book. I was curious about this book; I didn't want some huge, wordy thing that was part of some ridiculous series (*cough cough Young Jedi*). This is exactly right. It's got tons of full-color illustrations and a cute meta-story about young apprentice monster-hunters, and hits all the high notes for a monstrous manual.

It doesn't have any D&D stats (though it does have average heights and weights and dietary needs and such) for the monsters, just a bunch of evocative descriptions. It's exactly what a monster book should be for a kid who doesn't know anything about gaming, and makes the perfect bedtime or naptime reader.

Hopefully in a few years, with this book and maybe a companion book or two, he'll be interested and grown-up enough for me to run a quick dungeon delve or two. As a product to stoke the imagination this book is like catnip.

Length:: 0:37 Mins

These books were a fantastic introductory read. They have really beautiful illustrations and a fun quirky story element to them. My son read this book 4 times in the first day we bought it. These are really a good way to introduce children to the world of Fantasy Fiction.

a great book for my 9 year old grandson. he spent hours with the book. great book for the car on a two hour drive. fires the imagination. would highly reccoment.

This book does a fantastic job at capturing kids imagination and excitement about these wonderful monsters that Daddy plays with on Thursday nights. The art style only kidifies goblins (as cute little illustrated guides cowering before many of the baddies). I bought this for my 6 year old daughter at Christmas and she's enjoyed it immensely, though it truly won over my 3 year old daughter who insists on a quick pass through the whole book where she identifies 95% of the monsters on sight and their diets and usually a distinguishing feature like "I love the Rakshasa, they have backwards hands and magic!"

A must have for D&D fans with kids.