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Other reviewers have complained about the incompleteness of this book. I have read discussions of races in the works of JR Tolkien that are longer. Let me clarify: If the editor had named it "The Writer's Fantasy Reference," few would be complaining. The book is filled with material to trigger the imagination of any writer, and fill out the details in their work.The problem is the word "complete." At under 300 pages, how can a book claim to be a complete reference to anything, let alone as rich and varied a topic as "fantasy." The chapter on fantasy races is 17 pages long. The chapter on "Dress and Costume" is 14 pages, and is more appropriately named "A quick overview of Western feudal dress and costume of the first two millennia AD."I am happy with this book, but left uneasy by the title. An editor could have raised the average score of this book by a full star by omitting the word "Complete" from the title.
This book gives a great overview of world-building and the various things to consider. It covers no topics in depth, though it gives more detail than other reference guides I've seen. There is enough information on each subtopic to point the direction for more detailed research if you so choose.
There is nothing wrong with this book, it is nice for what it is, but I really think that anyone buying it because they think it will vastly improve their writing will be left disappointed. I will say right off the bat that this book is not for fantasy writers who consider themselves in any way experienced. It is well-written and interesting enough, but all of the information can be found very easily in other, much more detailed books and some of the information provided is something that most serious fantasy writers will find that they already knew to a point.That being said, the author has a good idea, and I do have it on my self for an occasional look-through.you never know what will inspire, after all. Buy it for a very basic reference book, and realize that you will have to do much more of your own research.as you should, anyway. This book can help point you in the right direction, certainly, but it can't do much more then point.
The book is nearly useless for someone who wishes to create as new fantasy world without Tolkien-like characters/animals/spirits/castles and so forth. The only thing I would add is that the book is limited in its scope. Sure, the book covers a very broad range of fantasy concepts and creatures/weapons/armors/cultures, but these things are all from the framework of the middle ages of Europe, Prussia and Britain and also what we can read in popular books. This book was helpful to me because it helped me to understand the fantasy worlds of David Eddings, Lloyd Alexander, Tolkien and other great writers of fantasy. I do highly recommend it, but I gave it three stars because I thought it could have been a bit more adaptable to any fantasy world
This is a great general reference guide. The book had good general descriptions, but didn't get too deep in any one area. It gives you a place to start so you know what direction to go in if you want to delve into a topic further. I liked the generic descriptions on witchcraft, which for being Christian, I found very benign and non-threatening concerning a topic that can get heated very quickly. This lets me decide if I want to research something further. If I had to say something I didn't like; it would be that I wish the book were longer, so it could cover more, and go into greater variety of the topics it covers.
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