A review by kellswitch
Literary Wonderlands: A Journey Through the Greatest Fictional Worlds Ever Created by Jared Shurin, Lev Grossman, John Clute, Adam Roberts, Kat Howard, Mahvesh Murad, Lisa Tuttle, Tom Shippery, Abigail Nussbaum, Laura Miller, Laurie Penny, James Smythe, John Sutherland, Mary Hamilton
5.0
This book ended up not being what I initially thought it was going to be, I thought it was going to be a sort of cutesy, let’s pretend these places are real look at the different worlds in fiction. Instead it was a surprisingly informative (for the relatively short entries per world) look at what influenced the creation of these worlds and how they have influenced our culture.
The book covers both the well known and many somewhat obscure works of fiction and both ancient and surprisingly current stories.
There were a nice variety of images accompanying each entry with a lot of color plates (when applicable), which I always appreciate.
Overall I learned a lot and enjoyed myself while doing so, though I will say this is a book better read in spurts vs. all at once as it can get a bit repetitive feeling after a while. Definitely a good resource and reference book.
The book covers both the well known and many somewhat obscure works of fiction and both ancient and surprisingly current stories.
There were a nice variety of images accompanying each entry with a lot of color plates (when applicable), which I always appreciate.
Overall I learned a lot and enjoyed myself while doing so, though I will say this is a book better read in spurts vs. all at once as it can get a bit repetitive feeling after a while. Definitely a good resource and reference book.