Discovery of Dragons
by Graeme Base
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Book Reviews of Discovery of Dragons
Book Review: An amazing book that will become a classic one day!
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is the one of the most unique and exsquisite dragon books available! I received it only recently, but I am astounded at this spectacular selection.
It begins with the letters from Bjorn of Bromme, a 9th century viking. This section is the funniest one in the book. This humor is very hard to describe, you'll have to read it yourself to get the idea. Anyway, this viking travels to many countries for various (and often humorous) reasons. On the way, he discovers four different species of European dragons, while writing letters to his cousin Olaf the Grim about his incredible finds. What is unique about this section is that he loses men every time he finds another dragon!
The next section is my personal favorite. A 13th century girl named Soong Mei Ying had a sick father. In order to pay for her father's medical bills, she sets out to Kathmandu, in the hope of gaining money by selling her father's silks. Unfortunetly, the curageous girl's silks are destroyed by a pair of Mongolian Screamers (a kind of dragon she discovers). As she glumly returns home, she discovers a Japanese Butterfly Lizard (my favorite dragon in the book) that could heal her father. This discovery leads her on a fantastic adventure, in which she discovers two more dragons.
The final section in "Discovery of Dragons" tells of the adventures of Prussian cartographer Dr. E. F. Liebermann. He wants to prove the theory of continental drift and so travels from Africa to Madagascar to Tasmania in search of the rare African Frilled Frog that can prove his theory. Instead, however, he discovers four extremely bizarre dragon species. He types letters to his sweetheart on a typewriter he built himself and, unfortunetly, he meets a meets a tragic end.
You will love this very unique book. You'll be surprised by the Saint George Dragon, dazzled by the Japanese Butterfly Lizard, and repulsed by the "unique" Common Green Draak of Madagascar. This book seems to be a mix of a storybook and a zoology book. The illustrations, as mentioned before, are beautiful and detailed and there is one for every dragon. Look and read closely to find little things hidden in it. Sorry about the stereotypical phrase, but you won't be able to put this book down!
Book Review: a great dragon book(rivaling dragonology)
Summary: 4 Stars
i already wrote a review on here that gave this book something of a bad name.Recently I have started to enjoy some of the smaller details of this book.For example even though the book deals a lot about dragons comments can be found written by mr. greasebeam.These comments include slight mentions of greasebeam's rival marty fibblewitz and it proves as an interesting side story.But the book itself is very enjoyable.Mr. Base has written several other books about animals but he treats the dragons as a real species.On nearly every page there is a letter,an editors note and a small info section about the certain dragon.There is also a large painting depicting the dragon a map showing where it lives and a scale comparison of the dragon to everyday animals.Also at the bottom of every page is a "comic strip" drawing out what was explained in that letter.A good book.However at my local bookstore it cost $19 and was located in the childrens section.Both of these details are the only thing keeping me from giving this book 5 stars.Anyhow I very wish there was a companion to this book(the calendar is out of print).I wouldn't count on it though this book is 9 years old.Book Review: A lavishly illustrated adult story in storybook guise.
Summary: 4 Stars
I stumbled upon this book when I was looking around in the Children's Section (yes, I do that), for
the role-playing books. Terribly annoying that they put role-playing in that same category, but oh
well, I'm not so prideful that I won't go there. And I found, much to my surprise, a similar outcast -
Base's books are written with amusement and sophistication, and while they could be entertaining if
read to a child, they are not children's books. This one is gorgeous, with the dragons fully rendered,
amusing (and fictional) notes in reference to them from various explorers, tiny cartoons in the
framing illustrating the stories involving the dragons, and maps of the world which show where the
dragon comes from. Also, the dragons have a size comparison, from a man (who happens to be
running away in the silhouette comparison), to an elephant. The only flaw? A jungle dragon
described as a "massive beast" in the text and shown to be much larger than a man in the cartoon
frame, is shown as the size of a cat on the size-comparison silhouettes. An impressive side note:
Base did the artwork too! ...Book Review: Important reference for dragon-spotters everywhere.
Summary: 5 Stars
"The discovery of dragons" is an academic textwrittenby Rowland W. Greasebeam B.Sc., the author of such works as"Uncle Greasebeam's big book of scarey dragons" and"Hiss or myth?" (or possibly by Graeme Base). Despite thedefection of his one-time collegue Marty Fibblewitz, Mr Greasebeam haspublished facsimiles of letters written by three great dragondiscoverers, with explanatory notes. The book features colourillustrations, the known world distrobution of the discovered dragons,and handy diagrams indicating size. For example, the Common GreenDraak can be recognised by it's stench, call: "DRAAAAAKDRAAAAAK," carnivorous nature, and the fact that it is abouttwice the size of an elephant, whereas the more dainty JapaneseButterfly Lizard can be quickly seen to be only about the size of amouse. (This could be very useful to Dragon Watchers, as one would notwant to confuse the two!)
As well as dragon afficionados, this bookwould appeal to readers of "Lady Cottington's Pressed FairyBook."
Book Review: Base's Masterpiece
Summary: 4 Stars
While Graeme Base has recieved much acclaim over other books like Animalia this is really the greatest thing he's written. The book is loaded with Australian humor that must be read several times for the jokes to be understood. The book is divided into 3 sections chronicling 3 famous serpentologists(someone who studies dragons). Each section has 4 letters written by that serpentologist with a massive picture of the dragon in question. There is two reasons why I haven't given this 5 stars. One because it should be formatted less as a story and more factual and two because the 18 dollar price tag is outrageous. Base should really write more about this subject because he's really in his element here.
NOTE: While this is considered a 'picture book' it is not for anyone under 10 years old(and not many 10 year olds will get it either).