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The Magnificent Book of Fantasy Creatures
Meet fire-breathing dragons, magical fairies, ancient monsters, and shapeshifting spirits as you take a journey through the fantastic realm of legend, myth, and folklore.
From the blood-sucking vampire and the three-headed dog Cerberus to the beautiful unicorn and the powerful centaur, a myriad of fantasy creatures from across the globe and many different cultures are brought to life in this large-format volume bursting with detailed full-color images.
Fascinating facts accompany each illustration, so you can find out why looking at a basilisk means certain death, where to find a Yeti, and why you should never disturb an ogre.
DOZENS OF FANTASY Learn about 36 giants, spirits, demons, and monsters.
BEAUTIFULLY Vibrant, detailed images bring these creatures of myth, folklore, and legend to life.
FASCINATING Includes hundreds of fascinating facts in an easy-to-read format that will enthral mythology lovers of all ages.
CLASSROOM TO COFFEE This beautiful volume is equally at home on a school bookshelf to support student learning as in a living room to be enjoyed by the whole family.
COLLECT THE More fascinating compendiums for all ages include The Magnificent Book of Monsters, The Magnificent Book of Dragons , The Magnificent Book of Extinct Animals , and The Magnificent Book of Sharks , and more!
From the blood-sucking vampire and the three-headed dog Cerberus to the beautiful unicorn and the powerful centaur, a myriad of fantasy creatures from across the globe and many different cultures are brought to life in this large-format volume bursting with detailed full-color images.
Fascinating facts accompany each illustration, so you can find out why looking at a basilisk means certain death, where to find a Yeti, and why you should never disturb an ogre.
DOZENS OF FANTASY Learn about 36 giants, spirits, demons, and monsters.
BEAUTIFULLY Vibrant, detailed images bring these creatures of myth, folklore, and legend to life.
FASCINATING Includes hundreds of fascinating facts in an easy-to-read format that will enthral mythology lovers of all ages.
CLASSROOM TO COFFEE This beautiful volume is equally at home on a school bookshelf to support student learning as in a living room to be enjoyed by the whole family.
COLLECT THE More fascinating compendiums for all ages include The Magnificent Book of Monsters, The Magnificent Book of Dragons , The Magnificent Book of Extinct Animals , and The Magnificent Book of Sharks , and more!
- GenresPicture BooksUnicorns
80 pages, Hardcover
Published July 23, 2024
About the author
Tom Jackson
675 books61 followers"I'm a non-fiction author and project editor (plus I do a bit of journalism). I'm available for project development, writing, project management and I also work as a packager. Click on the links above to see examples of my work.
But first some background: Over the last 20 years, I've written books, magazine and newspaper articles, for online and for television. I get to write about a wide range of subjects, everything from axolotls to zoroastrianism. However, my specialties are natural history, technology and all things scientific. I've worked on projects with Brian May, Patrick Moore, Marcus de Sautoy and Carol Vorderman and for major international publishers, such as Dorling Kindersley, National Geographic, Scholastic, Hachette, Facts on File and BBC Magazines.
I spend my days finding fun ways of communicating all kinds of facts, new and old, to every age group and reading ability. I live in Bristol, England, with my wife and three children. I studied zoology at Bristol University and have had spells working at the zoos in Jersey and Surrey. I used to be something of a conservationist, which included planting trees in Somerset, surveying Vietnamese jungle and rescuing buffaloes from drought-ridden Zimbabwe. Writing jobs have also taken me to the Galápagos Islands, the Amazon rainforest, the coral reefs of Indonesia and the Sahara Desert. Nowadays, I can be found mainly in the attic."
~http://tomjackson.weebly.com/
But first some background: Over the last 20 years, I've written books, magazine and newspaper articles, for online and for television. I get to write about a wide range of subjects, everything from axolotls to zoroastrianism. However, my specialties are natural history, technology and all things scientific. I've worked on projects with Brian May, Patrick Moore, Marcus de Sautoy and Carol Vorderman and for major international publishers, such as Dorling Kindersley, National Geographic, Scholastic, Hachette, Facts on File and BBC Magazines.
I spend my days finding fun ways of communicating all kinds of facts, new and old, to every age group and reading ability. I live in Bristol, England, with my wife and three children. I studied zoology at Bristol University and have had spells working at the zoos in Jersey and Surrey. I used to be something of a conservationist, which included planting trees in Somerset, surveying Vietnamese jungle and rescuing buffaloes from drought-ridden Zimbabwe. Writing jobs have also taken me to the Galápagos Islands, the Amazon rainforest, the coral reefs of Indonesia and the Sahara Desert. Nowadays, I can be found mainly in the attic."
~http://tomjackson.weebly.com/
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 9, 2024
If you like mediocre AI "illustrations" and boring bullet point facts that could also be AI "written" - this book is for you.
Each creature gets a full spread, but the space is mostly wasted. There is so much empty space on each page. There's a few bullet points for each creature with some facts, mostly origins of the myth - no magnificent facts about their fantastical powers or abilities. One of my co-workers pointed out there were inaccuracies in some of the writing. The book called the Jormungandr (world serpent) a dragon, which is a sea serpent not a dragon. They described jinni as protector spirits, when genies/jinn are known as primarily malicious or tricksters. (From my co-worker, I am not super knowledgeable about mythical creatures)
Each creature gets a single "illustration." The scales go every which way and sometimes fade into nondescript texture. Most of the feathers look more like fur. The eyes on the humanoid creatures are wonky and fingers bleed into flippers. There are obvious flaws in illustrations which are known AI issues - too few fingers and too many toes. Each page also has a small square with a little bit of actual story related to the creature. These boxes also contain flipped smaller versions of the full size illustrations - the "illustrator" couldn't even bother to create a second illustration for each creature.
Creating art and writing are difficult but it is better to do it badly (and learn/improve in the process!) than to let a computer do it for you. If one can't be bothered to put in the work for the writing/art, why should we bother to read/look at it?
Each creature gets a full spread, but the space is mostly wasted. There is so much empty space on each page. There's a few bullet points for each creature with some facts, mostly origins of the myth - no magnificent facts about their fantastical powers or abilities. One of my co-workers pointed out there were inaccuracies in some of the writing. The book called the Jormungandr (world serpent) a dragon, which is a sea serpent not a dragon. They described jinni as protector spirits, when genies/jinn are known as primarily malicious or tricksters. (From my co-worker, I am not super knowledgeable about mythical creatures)
Each creature gets a single "illustration." The scales go every which way and sometimes fade into nondescript texture. Most of the feathers look more like fur. The eyes on the humanoid creatures are wonky and fingers bleed into flippers. There are obvious flaws in illustrations which are known AI issues - too few fingers and too many toes. Each page also has a small square with a little bit of actual story related to the creature. These boxes also contain flipped smaller versions of the full size illustrations - the "illustrator" couldn't even bother to create a second illustration for each creature.
Creating art and writing are difficult but it is better to do it badly (and learn/improve in the process!) than to let a computer do it for you. If one can't be bothered to put in the work for the writing/art, why should we bother to read/look at it?
Displaying 1 of 1 review