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ericbuscemi's review
3.0
A decent source of information on both historical medieval societies and popular fantasy tropes. The most useful parts, in my opinion, are the diagrams labeling the different pieces or armor and parts of a castle, as well as extensive vocabulary of siege weapons and society classes of those times.
The cover of this book highlights an introduction by Terry Brooks, which, while this is true, is incredibly disappointing. The entire introduction is three pages long, and can be summed up in the following sentence: "Make sure you keep your fantasy writing grounded in reality."
The cover of this book highlights an introduction by Terry Brooks, which, while this is true, is incredibly disappointing. The entire introduction is three pages long, and can be summed up in the following sentence: "Make sure you keep your fantasy writing grounded in reality."
unwrappingwords's review against another edition
4.0
I can understand why so many people disliked this book, but personally I've actually found it really helpful. It's not hugely detailed, and there probably is a lot missing, but it's useful for things like language and terminology, especially for things like clothing and buildings. It's also got decent lists of various fantastical creatures. It's main focus does seem to be high fantasy, but there's a lot of useful stuff in here for most forms of fantasy-based fiction. Yes, it's basic, but it's a decent springboard and best used as an overview more than anything else, especially as anything further can probably be researched online, but this book gives a good starting point for anyone looking to write fantasy.
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