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Unicorns
The unicorn is one of the most iconic and enduring fantasy creatures and has become a symbol for magic, miracles, purity, innocence and enchantment and has inspired authors, poets and artists for countless centuries. In this richly illustrated book filled with curious lore, fantasy artist Anne Stokes and author John Woodward bring you the history of the unicorn and give a glimpse into the realm of this majestic and charismatic creature.
124 pages, Paperback
Published June 1, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 10, 2019
I wasn't sure what to expect when I picked this up. I'm a big fan of Anne Stokes art work and this book looked fun.
I contains a cool history of unicorns, when they were first recorded and how they have changed over the years and how they are represented differently in different cultures. It was really informative. There are also a few short stories by John Woodward which were nice and lots of lovely art by Anne Stokes.
I really enjoyed reading this and would love for it to become a series with other mythical creatures covered.
I contains a cool history of unicorns, when they were first recorded and how they have changed over the years and how they are represented differently in different cultures. It was really informative. There are also a few short stories by John Woodward which were nice and lots of lovely art by Anne Stokes.
I really enjoyed reading this and would love for it to become a series with other mythical creatures covered.
May 9, 2024
Art book that the family has been wanting a bit and so chose to do it as a Christmas gift. Unfortunately to keep it a secret and since of wanting to read it myself it is a bit late for a Christmas gift.
Unicorns is basically a book in which Anne Stokes and her partner have come together yet again to compile an educational guide for those who may be fascinated by unicorns in general with some illustration provided by the famous Anne. As a result the book text is split into chapters that explores the history, the alicorn (although the term is only used once and not in the same regard as I am now using it) and the biology of the creatures before shifting into a lot more common grounds such as how to capture unicorns and their place in heraldry. This is then followed by a brief divide into what unicorns stand for spiritually, their place in magick with a page dedicated to making a wand to capture the unicorn spirit and also where they can be found within certain literature works.
The set-up for the book itself allows each chapter to be started off with the same spread in which the left is provided with a brightly colored illustration with quote and the right has a blue chapter head. Each chapter is started off with an Anne Stokes piece and also ends with a Stokes piece plus a bit of a descriptive for that piece. The rest of the chapter explores the subject in text with various means of other illustrative components plus the occasional interspersed short stories.
The reason for my low rating of this book is the fact that it just had some glitches. In the black unicorn short story I don't know if the author was intentional but the desperate survivors came from the west while the black unicorn somehow came from the northeast, which is a bit of the same direction as the hiding villagers were going. At the same time although I know the elements were important for the story to have us follow the blacksmith it seemed like the much half of the story would have been follow Lidiya on how she received the help as well as made it back from the mountains without the old babushka knowing she was gone.
And secondly and perhaps the major annoyance for me was the fact that the book does have a listing in the back of all the Anne Stokes pieces that were supposedly used in the book. I say supposedly since there were one or two others that seem like they may have been from the artist but they weren't included in this listing. Each of these included pieces was provided with the page number(s), the title of the piece and a bit about how the author was inspired to make it. All was going good until the piece titled Realm of Darkness, which mentions there is a flying dragon included in the piece. And no matter how hard I looked I couldn't find the beasty so I fell to the internet to see if I could the piece included elsewhere while the dragon has quite a notable spot in the online works that I am surprised the artist didn't see that lack of detail when she helped to have the book put together.
And the last complaint I had is just since some of the pieces were tucked into full page spreads thus meaning some of the focal material was caught in the cracks of the book instead of having the piece where you can see it uninterrupted.
Otherwise the elements of the book were rather amazing taken in as a whole. The cover unfolds to provided the reader with a full skeletal view of the unicorn although the text can be found much later on in the book. The inner cover leaf has some extra facts for readers, which I didn't see until my niece pointed out to me and there is a very gorgeous although simply colored Ex Libris made to fit the theme.
Although most definitely not the best illustrated unicorn book out on the market nor probably one of her much better works, some Anne Stokes fans or unicorn fans in general may find some content matter to be enjoyable. Otherwise for an average work in my honest opinion it wasn't really worth hunting this book down to add to any particular art collection.
Unicorns is basically a book in which Anne Stokes and her partner have come together yet again to compile an educational guide for those who may be fascinated by unicorns in general with some illustration provided by the famous Anne. As a result the book text is split into chapters that explores the history, the alicorn (although the term is only used once and not in the same regard as I am now using it) and the biology of the creatures before shifting into a lot more common grounds such as how to capture unicorns and their place in heraldry. This is then followed by a brief divide into what unicorns stand for spiritually, their place in magick with a page dedicated to making a wand to capture the unicorn spirit and also where they can be found within certain literature works.
The set-up for the book itself allows each chapter to be started off with the same spread in which the left is provided with a brightly colored illustration with quote and the right has a blue chapter head. Each chapter is started off with an Anne Stokes piece and also ends with a Stokes piece plus a bit of a descriptive for that piece. The rest of the chapter explores the subject in text with various means of other illustrative components plus the occasional interspersed short stories.
The reason for my low rating of this book is the fact that it just had some glitches. In the black unicorn short story I don't know if the author was intentional but the desperate survivors came from the west while the black unicorn somehow came from the northeast, which is a bit of the same direction as the hiding villagers were going. At the same time although I know the elements were important for the story to have us follow the blacksmith it seemed like the much half of the story would have been follow Lidiya on how she received the help as well as made it back from the mountains without the old babushka knowing she was gone.
And secondly and perhaps the major annoyance for me was the fact that the book does have a listing in the back of all the Anne Stokes pieces that were supposedly used in the book. I say supposedly since there were one or two others that seem like they may have been from the artist but they weren't included in this listing. Each of these included pieces was provided with the page number(s), the title of the piece and a bit about how the author was inspired to make it. All was going good until the piece titled Realm of Darkness, which mentions there is a flying dragon included in the piece. And no matter how hard I looked I couldn't find the beasty so I fell to the internet to see if I could the piece included elsewhere while the dragon has quite a notable spot in the online works that I am surprised the artist didn't see that lack of detail when she helped to have the book put together.
And the last complaint I had is just since some of the pieces were tucked into full page spreads thus meaning some of the focal material was caught in the cracks of the book instead of having the piece where you can see it uninterrupted.
Otherwise the elements of the book were rather amazing taken in as a whole. The cover unfolds to provided the reader with a full skeletal view of the unicorn although the text can be found much later on in the book. The inner cover leaf has some extra facts for readers, which I didn't see until my niece pointed out to me and there is a very gorgeous although simply colored Ex Libris made to fit the theme.
Although most definitely not the best illustrated unicorn book out on the market nor probably one of her much better works, some Anne Stokes fans or unicorn fans in general may find some content matter to be enjoyable. Otherwise for an average work in my honest opinion it wasn't really worth hunting this book down to add to any particular art collection.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews