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mrswythe89's review
5.0
An inventive and delightful illustrated bestiary of imagined Malaysian flora and fauna, threaded through with sly humour.
obnorthrup's review
4.0
The art is great and the descriptions convey a sense of place that makes me want drop every other creature or plant into a roleplaying game, although it'd be more challenging to use some of them as active parts of plot hooks.
cookiemonstaly's review
4.0
Fuhh, finally done! I have so many mixed feelings about this book.
For one, I truly enjoyed it. It reads like an encyclopaedia for magical creatures in Malaysia. I love reading Malaysian things and being able to say "heh, I know what you mean!". This book is like if "Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them" took place in Malaysia.
Hell Dog was definitely one of my favourites, but Ghost Cat sure tugged at the heartstrings. Also, I wish Giant Skunk Pleco was a real being.
Has a good kick out of watching my bf read the Red-Headed River Terrapin entry, heh.
As for the illustrations - so gorgeous! I had to resist the urge to colour them in with all that lovely, lovely white space.
So what I didn't really enjoy about the book is - weirdly enough - the writing.
I think this is largely due to the fact that I expected this to be a light and breezy read, but the prose was too flowery and had too many bombastic words in an effort to paint the scene for you. So at times, it felt like a chore to read through.
For one, I truly enjoyed it. It reads like an encyclopaedia for magical creatures in Malaysia. I love reading Malaysian things and being able to say "heh, I know what you mean!". This book is like if "Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them" took place in Malaysia.
Hell Dog was definitely one of my favourites, but Ghost Cat sure tugged at the heartstrings. Also, I wish Giant Skunk Pleco was a real being.
Has a good kick out of watching my bf read the Red-Headed River Terrapin entry, heh.
As for the illustrations - so gorgeous! I had to resist the urge to colour them in with all that lovely, lovely white space.
So what I didn't really enjoy about the book is - weirdly enough - the writing.
I think this is largely due to the fact that I expected this to be a light and breezy read, but the prose was too flowery and had too many bombastic words in an effort to paint the scene for you. So at times, it felt like a chore to read through.
nanasanchez's review against another edition
4.0
Ok, that was not what I was expecting, and all for the best. The book describes various plants and animals that are similar to the plants and animals we know, but then there are not. There are Firecracker Crows, Tropical Rock Maples, Allergy Bunnies, Auntie Wasps and many more. Each one is a story of its own, where you've just met one of this amazing creatures. And each one is accompanied by a beautiful illustration, which you come back to now and then while reading.
celinewyp's review against another edition
4.0
I've always been a huge fan of fantasy and science fiction, so this book immediately drew my interest when I found out about it. Now, I've read compendiums of fantasy creatures before, but this is unique of course because it focuses on South-East Asia and Malaysia, more specifically.
What I enjoyed the most was discovering the quiet creativity of Zedeck Siew. Rather than retell stories of pontianak and other local beings, all of the fantastic flora and fauna in the book were unknown to me, all newly imagined into existence. While unique and certainly not real, I feel like many of the specimens found in the book could very well exist anyway.
Seeing as this is a local production, I was happy to find a distinctively Malaysian flavour in the book. Beyond that, I loved that certain topics were highlighted in the snippets about the creatures. Current international politics, local politics, conservation issues. As a environmentalist, I particularly like that current problems we have in nature were included. Reading the book, you can see that effort has been put in to make it logical, understandable and scientific. While you may not be able to learn biology from here, it is enough to spark an interest to discover more, I feel. Unfortunately, at times it feels like the author does not fully understand the ecological concepts that are used.
The best way I can describe the writing is by calling it whimsical. It's somewhat dreamy but still rooted in reality. Reading the stories for me was sometimes very difficult. The writing just wasn't as smooth as it could have been. I think that it could definitely have benefited from some more editing. And there too-liberal use of commas sometimes made me want to pull out a red pen.
On to the linoprints. I love them! They're all very detailed and paint a great picture of the creatures. However, I feel like the use of patterns for the plantlife could be very confusing. I understand and really like the reason for the choice, but I feel that it perhaps wasn't executed as well as it could have been.
Overall, Creatures of Near Kingdoms is a beautiful book.
What I enjoyed the most was discovering the quiet creativity of Zedeck Siew. Rather than retell stories of pontianak and other local beings, all of the fantastic flora and fauna in the book were unknown to me, all newly imagined into existence. While unique and certainly not real, I feel like many of the specimens found in the book could very well exist anyway.
Seeing as this is a local production, I was happy to find a distinctively Malaysian flavour in the book. Beyond that, I loved that certain topics were highlighted in the snippets about the creatures. Current international politics, local politics, conservation issues. As a environmentalist, I particularly like that current problems we have in nature were included. Reading the book, you can see that effort has been put in to make it logical, understandable and scientific. While you may not be able to learn biology from here, it is enough to spark an interest to discover more, I feel. Unfortunately, at times it feels like the author does not fully understand the ecological concepts that are used.
The best way I can describe the writing is by calling it whimsical. It's somewhat dreamy but still rooted in reality. Reading the stories for me was sometimes very difficult. The writing just wasn't as smooth as it could have been. I think that it could definitely have benefited from some more editing. And there too-liberal use of commas sometimes made me want to pull out a red pen.
On to the linoprints. I love them! They're all very detailed and paint a great picture of the creatures. However, I feel like the use of patterns for the plantlife could be very confusing. I understand and really like the reason for the choice, but I feel that it perhaps wasn't executed as well as it could have been.
Overall, Creatures of Near Kingdoms is a beautiful book.
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