Customer Reviews

The Dictionary of Imaginary Places: The Newly Updated and Expanded Classic

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I thought this was a wonderful book, both for reader and for writers. I am going to buy one for my brother now! And as for the imaginary places they left out, my guess on that would be that the people who own the copyrights on those imaginary places would not allow the author or publisher to include them in this book. I noted that although Xanth is not there (Piers Anthony), Neverwhere is (Neil Gaiman); they are both contempory authors and I think that just boiled down to permission. It seems that everything that is no longer copywrited is included.

I recieved this book for Christmas from my paternal grandparents, who always give me tight stuff. I was crazy about this book, which covers every imaginery place in any book from Prospero's Island in "The Tempest" (great play, by the way) to Thomas More's Utopia. It was an amazing book. If you have ever loved any fantasy book, get this book! It has something to satisfy every interest.

I like the maps, and the entries, but I found this book to be extreamly limited. I mean, granted there is a lot of fantasy out there, so they had to have some guidelines, but maybe next time they could expand to books that don't have a location here on earth. Another thing that bothered me was how they left out books like Redwall series, and Madeline LEngle's books. Both of these follow the rules set by the author, but neither of them can be found in The Dictionary of Imaginary Places.

This is a wonderful vehicle for the imagination, but I hope the next edition includes Pooh's Hundred Acre Wood. How could the authors have missed this one? Perhaps a copyright issue?

This book is a wonderful vehicle for the imagination, but I hope the next edition includes Pooh's Hundred Acre Wood. How could the authors have missed this one?

This book is a wonderful vehicle for the imagination, but I hope the next edition includes Pooh's Hundred Acre Wood. How could the authors have missed this one?

No one writes as beautifully as they do when they are writing about an imaginary place.

This is the perfect companion for anyone who loves to daydream and go to imaginary places. The Abbey of the Rose would easily be the setting for a great romance and one of my favorites is Exopotamia, that vast deserted land "that because of the total lack of air, the atmosphere seems very healthy." Cloudcuckooland is another fav, a place I know well in my daydreams. Buy it, read it, over and over again. Sheer pleasure!

A trove of wonders, many familiar, many not. It's still nice to browse through the various lands of Oz (with an excellent map to guide me), or to refresh in my mind where the Tombs of Atuan lie in the Islands of the Earthsea Archipelago. It's also wondrous to find Selene, the city of the Vampires where I "without fear, must sprinkle them with vampire's heart-ash; the vampires will then explode in a bluish flash." This is not, and cannot be, a comprehensive encyclopedia of all lands fantastic, but it is an extensive collection of wondrous places. Of note, readers of Science Fiction will find no familiar planets to peruse. These are the locales of Terrestrial imagination, of Middle Earth and Narnia and Atlantis and their ilk. My only personal complaint and frustration is how difficult it will be to retrieve many of the source works used by the authors. Paul Feval's LA VILLE VAMPIRE (Paris, 1875) is typical of the kind of treasure I would like to read in full, but can only find a couple of French language copies at the Library of Congress and the New York Public Library. Alas, I'll settle for a fantasy of escape to Iffish, that quiet island in the Earthsea Archipelago where if I'm very still, I might catch a view of a rare harrekki, chasing wasps and foraging for birds eggs. Wistful sighs all around.

A very enjoyable overview of an immense number of imaginary worlds; I was most pleased by the copious line drawings and maps of various realms. I highly recommend this for anyone who likes to read.