This companion volume to Alien Landscapes is a spectacular voyage of exploration, in words and pictures, through the fabulous landscapes of the immensely popular and fecund world of fantasy fiction.
Castles and citadels, dark towers and impregnable fortresses, riven mountain and hidden valleys, primordial forests and dead sea bottoms are populated by wizards and demons, dragons and giants, and still stranger creatures from alien mythologies and the writer's mind. And there are heroes: such champions of Order as Conan, Robert E. Howard's mighty barbarian; J.R.R. Tolkien's Fellowship of the Ring; Michael Moorcock's brooding albino antihero, Elric; and Stephen Donaldson's bitter and reluctant Thomas Covenant.
Ten fantasy realms, from Middle-earth to Shangri-La, from Gormenghast to Earthsea, are illustrated, mainly in colour, by a wide range of top fantasy artists, and examined and discussed in a lively and informative text by two leading authorities on the field.
Despite fantasy fiction's vast and loyal audience, Realms of Fantasy is the first work of its kind, and will appeal to devotees and newcomers alike. Its combination of illustration and text will enable those adventurous travellers who have already discovered these realms to explore them further, and for those who are yet to do so, it will open new horizons of the imagination.
