In Search of Lost Dragons by Élian Black'mor, M Carine, Jezequel, Hannah Gorfinkel-Elder , and Jason Ullmeyer is a book with full-color paintings paired with a unique story of world-wide exploration and dragon encounters. An illustrator and reporter journeys from Europe through the Middle East and finally to Saigon in search of the dark caverns and mountaintop perches where the elusive winged serpents dwell. With the gift of seeing the invisible, our explorer friend records each encounter in a journal of fully painted artwork and accompanies his findings with snippets of local lore as evidence that these hidden beasts continue to shape the world in unexpected ways.
In Search of Lost Dragons is full of beautifully stunning artwork. The variety of dragons and other creatures is simply stunning. I will say that I did have some trouble with the text. It was written in a flowing cursive print, like a true travel or research journal would be. However, I found the font hard to read, particularly in the digital format I was reading. Perhaps this is not a problem with the print version, but frankly the artwork was stunning enough for me to make the bits of the story I had to strain to read negligible. The variations on dragon types and environments expanded on the accepted or well known dragon myths and folklore, giving me new ideas and images of dragons. I have always been a big fan of fantasy, and thought I had seen it all as far as dragons went. The images here broke some of those conventions and stretched my notions about dragons.
In Search of Lost Dragons is a book I would recommend to fantasy art lovers. I found the pages stunning and found myself studying small details and the artwork in general for a long time. It was very well done.
No comments:
Post a Comment