Reviews for The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Mythical Creatures

The average rating for The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Mythical Creatures based on 2 reviews is 1 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-01-23 00:00:00 Derrick Walker You know, for a book that claims itself to be the "ultimate encyclopedia" it really didn't have much. Maybe just one or two pages, mostly of white space and illustrations (which, admittedly, were pretty) of like "This creature is called such-and-so and appears in the Bible and did this such-and-so thing." I think the author must have been a Greek mythology buff with a penchant for Biblical things because a lot of the entries mentioned Hercules defeating such-and-so creature or such-and-so creature becoming a symbol in the Bible for such-and-so. However, there was no "further reading" or "if you're interested in dragons, you might also reference this other entry that's similar to dragons." Speaking of the dragon entry, it mentioned Smaug from The Hobbit, as it rightfully should, but then the "elves" entry had about zero mention of Tolkien literally influencing the entire concept of modern elves! Not a single mention! I wanted to tear that page out of the book and rip it into a million pieces because it also mentioned only briefly (briefly meaning like, two sentences) about the Norse myths of elves that inspired Tolkien without even mentioning Tolkien by name. IT WAS PUBLISHED IN FREAKING 2006, WHEN THE BOOKS HAD BEEN OUT FOR DECADES AND EVEN THE MOVIES HAD ALREADY BEEN RELEASED. So this book having been "in existence" before LOTR was written has no excuse for that. In fact, the majority of fantasy audiences will think of Tolkien elves (and even the elves from Paolini's Inheritance cycle) first, so why not mention these two great works of literature that helped to effectively redefine the fantasy genre and cement in readers' minds what an "elf" is? And ALL THE TYPOS. Oh my god, so many typos. I will forgive a book one or maybe even two typos, especially if it's self-published, but this book was 1) published by Barnes and Noble, literally THE largest corporate bookstore in the entire country, 2) is a nonfiction book intended for reference, so having typos means that I don't trust what the information is that's being presented to me, and 3) THE TYPOS ARE ON EVERY SINGLE FREAKING PAGE. I can't. I literally cannot trust the information being presented to me when the multitude of people who must have worked on this (illustrator, author, editor, publisher, marketing team) didn't notice any of the typos at all. Not a single one, and think "Oh, wait, did we forget to proofread this silly thing? LOL." As a fantasy author who is looking to add more creatures to her novels, this book is a good jumping off point, because it gives me the name of the creature and an illustration of what it's supposed to look like so I can choose one that fits my fantasy world and then Google the name of the creature and do my own research about it, but that's about all it's good for. This book sorely disappoints on all levels and I DNFed after the "e" section.

Review # 2 was written on 2010-09-05 00:00:00 Christopher Rooney I was a bit excited when I seen this discounted. After picking up the Dictionary of Mythology, I thought this would be an excellent companion for my mythical research. Unfortunately, it comes of as a cheaply made rushed effort, filled with colorless pictures I could have drawn myself, and I'm far from an artist. It does have a color section, but most of those pictures are mediocre drawings at best, and the text itself has a few errors. I love the idea, but this book is a mediocre attempt in comparison to The Book of Angels, The Book of Dragons, and other various books about mythical creatures that actually incorporated beautiful artwork.