Customer Reviews

The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Fantasy

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

 

 

Though "ultimate" is an overstatement, there is much to enjoy here. This book is nowhere near as comprehensive as Clute and Grant's Encyclopedia of Fantasy, but it does have its own virtues. It is lavishly and colorfully illustrated (note especially the stunningly beautiful full-page painting opposite Terry Pratchett's foreword). It has entries for most well-known fantasy authors of the past and present. There are sections on types of fantasy (fairy tales, animal fantasies, Arthuriana, humorous, heroic, etc.), movies, TV, fantasy characters and entities, games, and fantasy worlds (Middle-earth, Narnia, Discworld, Earthsea, etc.). This is an entertaining, informative and visually appealing book for anyone who enjoys fantasy.

Though the effort, layout and content are commendable I find one key problem with the book as a whole; it's just *FAR* too negative in it's mini-reviews of fantasy material (particularly film and t.v.). The amount of negative comments is so pervasive that I wondered, at times, if the authors even enjoyed fantasy, period. Virtually every fantasy classic is bashed for being anything from contrived to tawdry to banal. Yes, it's a work of opinion but (and I feel this is obvious) anyone who would pick up an Encyclopedia on any specific genre and to read so very much negative review was extremely off putting to me.

A recent update of this publication, it seems.

Taking a slightly different approach to the Science Fiction version of this that I have seen (which admittedly is older), this book takes a broad media look at the fantasy genre, and covers movies, television, books, role playing games, and computer games.

I think for a reasonably shallow, graphics and pictures heavy book this is a pretty good idea, and being reasonably familiar with a lot of this it appears to be done pretty well.

If you are looking for literature heavy bibliography, look elsewhere.

Being of the pommie variety there are a few digs at American junk (admittedly some of them well deserved), and probably less at cheesy UK equivalents, particularly as far as movies and tv goes.

There are also sections on famous fantasy characters, and famous fantasy plaes - e.g. Conan, Middle-Earth and that sort of thing.

All in all, rather well done, and should be interesting to most, and really useful for someone coming in brand new to get some ideas of where to start.



4.5 out of 5

As much as I appreciated the general quality, layout and design of this publication, I was "put-off" by the very opinionated writing which I found throughout the book. When I read entries in ENCYCLOPEDIAS, I'm accustomed to INFORMATION, not OPINIONS. Oh well...

In it's own right, this book is spectacular. The information is thorough and the pictures are considerably exceptional. Here's the thing. Don't be fooled by it's title. It most definitely is NOT an encyclopedia of fantasy creatures and the like. What it does detail on are movies, books, and other media that include such creatures. Personally I was looking for a book that details on the fantasy creatures themselves, and this book absolutely failed to do that. Look for another book to do that.

Though "ultimate" is an overstatement, there is much to enjoy here. This book is nowhere near as comprehensive as Clute and Grant's Encyclopedia of Fantasy, but it does have its own virtues. It is lavishly and colorfully illustrated (note especially the stunningly beautiful full-page painting opposite Terry Pratchett's foreword). It has entries for most well-known fantasy authors of the past and present. There are sections on types of fantasy (fairy tales, animal fantasies, Arthuriana, humorous, heroic, etc.), movies, TV, fantasy characters and entities, games, and fantasy worlds (Middle-earth, Narnia, Discworld, Earthsea, etc.). This is an entertaining, informative and visually appealing book for anyone who enjoys fantasy.

I expected a book about fantasy art and creatures. This is a list of movies in the 'fantasy' genre. It's fine as a catalog, not as an encyclopedia of fantasy nomenclature.

Nicely done, but not what I expected. I bought it because I saw Terry Pratchett's name. Great thought I, because I love Terry Pratchett books, and thought it would be something along those lines. But a Terry Pratchett book it is definitely not. Far from it. That's not to say other people wouldn't enjoy it, but not me. I would call it a coffee table book - one you toss on your coffee table for other people to thumb thru, but you never read yourself. It's one of those books that if I had seen it in a bookstore, then thumbed thru it, I never would have bought it.

I've really enjoyed this book so far, it's very informative, and is beautifully designed. In 250 pages you can only cover so much of the fantasy universe, but I think they did a good job.

I did notice that there are a lot of opinions, but there are many more facts, and the opinions make for a slightly more interesting read than just facts, as long as you take them with a grain of salt. I didn't notice overly negative opinions though, I saw a mix of positive and negative. And face it, a lot of pulp and mass-produced fantasy entertainment isn't of the best quality, that's just reality; I don't think it's unreasonable to call those types of items 'derivative'.

In summary, definitely a fun book to browse through; even extends into gaming (learning the origins of D&D, etc was very cool). I never would've thought that I'd learn the origins of the name 'Wendy' from this book!

I came across this book at the library, and checked it out right away. From just skimming thru it I can see that there could be more on the subject, but I still think it's a great book. The photoes are great too. I'm going to buy my own copy as soon as I get some extra money.