Rating: 
Summary: Good Reference and Starting Point
Review: A long time ago I thought that fantasy would be the easiest genre in which to write--boy was I wrong! Readers want believable worlds and characters with which they can identify, and that means doing your research to base the fantastical on the realistic. This book is a wonderful place to start.Do you think armored warriors can just ride their horse at full gallop for hours on end? (Try more like one charge.) Do heroes wearing full armor go around decapitating their foes with one swing? (Think again!) What about government, religion, or a believable system of magic with consistent rules that work? The fact is, very few of us are familiar enough with the eras of the past often drawn upon for the setting of fantasy novels to completely paint a convincing, enticing picture of the worlds we imagine. That's where this book comes in as it examines a number of the most common elements of fantasy universes and discusses their roots and proper employment. Like any writing reference, this one won't make you an instant bestselling author, nor can it substitute for lack of familiarity of the genre itself for would-be writers. It can and does however offer a starting point that answers many common questions and points out frequent blunders beginning writers may have. It can't replace a library of mythological and historical references, but for a start and the price, it's a great addition to any writer's horde of books.
Rating: 
Summary: Great start for any fantasy writer
Review: Anyone who allowed this book to go to press should be ashamed! (They should also try reading some fantasy.) This book is so obviously hastily and carelessly thrown together, before you have finished the first chapter you will want your money back. The best you can say about this book if you are an aspiring fantasy writer is, "I wish I had written it." In a very specific market where demand far exceeds supply, this book will continue to sell copies for years, and the editor will be invited on a never-ending speaking tour/convention circuit listed as "an expert in the realm of fantasy and ground-breaking author."
And the only thing more hastily produced and included in this book was Terry Brooks' shameful introduction to the book. I don't know if he was friends with the editor, his/her agent, or the publisher, or if he just needed money for summer vacation. That introduction is one of the worst pieces of writing I have seen since I gave up on teaching high-school. If you already read fantasy avidly enough to try your hand at writing in the genre, this book will do nothing for you. At best, it is like a pocket thesaurus for fantasists, where a real thesaurus was quickly cannablized and all the other words simply deleted. If for some reason, you have never read fantasy and want don't want to dive into it unprepared, you could read this book so that the terminology would look familiar to you when you encountered it; however, the terminology would not be in any way CLARIFIED, as this is a thesaurus, not a dictionary, as previously stated. I do not go into specifics to complain about this work (and if I did, it would be to include quotations of Terry Brooks stretching to put a good face on this book in his night-before-the-deadline submission) because that was done so well by a previous reviewer...Also, I was shocked to see this listed at 4 stars, which prompted me to write a review, something I have done only 3 times to date. Then again, when I try to read fantasy novels that are also rated at 4 stars, I can begin to understand how these things happen: 4 stars for a fantasy novel is about as low a rating as a fantasy book can receive from the fiercely loyal fantasy fanbase, of which I am one--despite a degree in Literature from the same place that Dennis L. McKiernan and Margaret Weis are from, fantasy is all I read. And if you don't believe me about the 4 stars "worst rating", try to look up some of the worst fantasy books you have ever read (with a major author or publisher or even cover artist) and peruse their ratings. I believe this is why Amazon does not allow for "0 Star" ratings, because if 0.1% of a book's fans log on to give 5 star reviews, or even 4 star reviews, they will far outweigh the votes given by the 0.1% of the dissenters who take the time to give their 1 Star. Loyal fans will always outnumber the apathetic critics like myself who rarely want to spend an hour of their time to talk about a book they hated. A book which receives as many 5's (Enraptured with the book) as 1's (Disgusted with the book and burned it) will end up with a THREE STAR RATING. And a book with twice as many fans logging on as critics will end up with a 3.67 Star rating, which rounds to FOUR STARS. That is to say, 4 stars for a book that ONE-THIRD of the readership hated. Don't buy books with less than a 4.5 star rating!
Rating: 
Summary: Cash-Grubbing Schlock, or, Why 4 Stars Are Meaningless
Review: Anyone who allowed this book to go to press should be ashamed! (They should also try reading some fantasy.) This book is so obviously hastily and carelessly thrown together, before you have finished the first chapter you will want your money back. The best you can say about this book if you are an aspiring fantasy writer is, "I wish I had written it." In a very specific market where demand far exceeds supply, this book will continue to sell copies for years, and the editor will be invited on a never-ending speaking tour/convention circuit listed as "an expert in the realm of fantasy and ground-breaking author."
And the only thing more hastily produced and included in this book was Terry Brooks' shameful introduction to the book. I don't know if he was friends with the editor, his/her agent, or the publisher, or if he just needed money for summer vacation. That introduction is one of the worst pieces of writing I have seen since I gave up on teaching high-school. If you already read fantasy avidly enough to try your hand at writing in the genre, this book will do nothing for you. At best, it is like a pocket thesaurus for fantasists, where a real thesaurus was quickly cannablized and all the other words simply deleted. If for some reason, you have never read fantasy and want don't want to dive into it unprepared, you could read this book so that the terminology would look familiar to you when you encountered it; however, the terminology would not be in any way CLARIFIED, as this is a thesaurus, not a dictionary, as previously stated. I do not go into specifics to complain about this work (and if I did, it would be to include quotations of Terry Brooks stretching to put a good face on this book in his night-before-the-deadline submission) because that was done so well by a previous reviewer...Also, I was shocked to see this listed at 4 stars, which prompted me to write a review, something I have done only 3 times to date. Then again, when I try to read fantasy novels that are also rated at 4 stars, I can begin to understand how these things happen: 4 stars for a fantasy novel is about as low a rating as a fantasy book can receive from the fiercely loyal fantasy fanbase, of which I am one--despite a degree in Literature from the same place that Dennis L. McKiernan and Margaret Weis are from, fantasy is all I read. And if you don't believe me about the 4 stars "worst rating", try to look up some of the worst fantasy books you have ever read (with a major author or publisher or even cover artist) and peruse their ratings. I believe this is why Amazon does not allow for "0 Star" ratings, because if 0.1% of a book's fans log on to give 5 star reviews, or even 4 star reviews, they will far outweigh the votes given by the 0.1% of the dissenters who take the time to give their 1 Star. Loyal fans will always outnumber the apathetic critics like myself who rarely want to spend an hour of their time to talk about a book they hated. A book which receives as many 5's (Enraptured with the book) as 1's (Disgusted with the book and burned it) will end up with a THREE STAR RATING. And a book with twice as many fans logging on as critics will end up with a 3.67 Star rating, which rounds to FOUR STARS. That is to say, 4 stars for a book that ONE-THIRD of the readership hated. Don't buy books with less than a 4.5 star rating!
Rating:
Summary: You'd think writers would know what words mean...
Review: com·pen·di·um ( P ) Pronunciation Key (km-pnd-m)
n. pl. com·pen·di·ums or com·pen·di·a (-d-)
A short, complete summary; an abstract.
A list or collection of various items.
This book is a complete COMPENDIUM. And in that, it does its job extremely well. I would definitely recommend this to any writer who has a vocabulary big enough to understand that.
Useful information, almost invaluable once you start using it. Whether you use it to be inspired, or for a general idea of what you're talking about before you start writing, this book really is indispensable.
Rating:
Summary: incomplete
Review: Every so often I am griped by the strange delusion that I am an author on the verge of writing a great novel. It was in one of these states that I ordered "The Writer's Complete Fantasy Reference. Upon receiving the book my first thought was that it was much thinner than I had imagined it would be. My worries that the book was less than complete were confirmed in reading just a few pages. I recognize that one book could not hope to fully cover the various worlds of high fantasy and the background necessary to create a viable fantasy world. Yet I had hoped for so much more than what was presented here.
The book seems to suffer from many problems the most prominent is that it has a very bad case of bad editing. The book is obviously a collection of articles that have appeared elsewhere and they lack any sort of overall cohesion. The chapter on medieval Europe, the traditional fantasy setting, is severely lacking. It begins with a discussion of feudalism, leaving out the fact that feudal monarchies differed in structure and power from place to place. The feudal system of twelfth century Bavaria looked nothing like the system in place in England. Worse the book provides the impression that the singular kind of feudalism presented was the only governing system in use. The chapter includes a short list of titles of royalty but there is no indication of how these various personages would fit together to form a ruling class. What exactly is the difference between a Baronet and a Viscount? Who has more power a Marchioness or a Duke? What kind of social or economic benefits do these titles provide? None of these questions were answered. Additionally there is no indication of hierarchy among the nobles. Three is no indication of how nobles might interact with those of lesser stations. Would the lady of the manor speak directly to the goatherd or would she speak through an intermediary? Missing entirely is a discussion of day to day activities for peoples of various classes. The chapter on commerce, trade and law contained NO information on trade or commerce. Information about goods and raw materials valuable enough to justify the cost of shipping them across a continent are sadly lacking. There is a rather extensive list of occupations characters might have in a fantasy novel, the list is in fact the bulk of this chapter. The discussion of law was limited to a list of possible punishments one might expect to endure. We are provided with no clue as to what crimes might be connected to these punishments. What was a flogging offense compared to what constitutes and death sentence? There exists no discussion of just who enforced the laws, what sort of court system existed and the like are ignored. Most disappointing of all is the lack of information on the connection between the religious sect of society and the legal system. Orson Scott Card in his highly recommended book "How to Write Science Fiction &Fantasy" provided more information of magic and magical systems in one sentence than this book managed to provided in 67 pages. His one sentence was "What is the price of magic?" Novels of high fantasy are overrun with magical systems, many of them making no sense what so ever, yet the complete reference book does not address this issue in the least. In the sections on magic we are treated to yet another lengthy list of Native American power animals, forms of divination, possible magical powers your wizards could have and the like. In a book seemingly devoted to being a reference of high fantasy writing I had to pause to wonder why I was reading about the modern Neo-Pagan religion. There was page after page devoted to information on Wicca, Wiccan ritual structure, Gerald Gardner, the Church of All Worlds, Neo-Viking traditions and other modern Pagan organizations. What these have to do with sword and sorcery fantasy writing is beyond me. My only thought is that the editor's felt the book was to short and had this article just lying around. The chapter on fantasy races seems more a half hearted run down of what famous authors have envisioned races such as Dwarves and Elves would be like. A discussion of history or mythology of these races would have been far more useful. The chapter on creatures of myth and legend is yet another list of magical creatures. The list is neither informative nor very helpful. The book is a collection of disjointed articles and their sum does not make a whole. The pieces are disconnected in style and substance.
Rating:
Summary: An irreplacable reference for the fantasy writer.
Review: Fantasy is probably one of the most difficult forms of literature to write a story. While the genre does give an author freedom to create a breathtaking and beautiful world of his own, the author has to make that world believable, which can be quite a daunting task. Thankfully, the editors of "Writer's Digest" books have given us "The Writer's Complete Fantasy Reference" so fantasy authors, newbies and pros alike, can do just such a thing. The book starts out with an excellent introduction by renowned fantasy author Terry Brooks, and his words effectively tells the reader the lessons a fantasy author must learn to make his fiction acceptable. Then comes the rest of the book, all of the material to help a fantasy author realize his potential. Although this is a reference book, I seriously recommend going through the entire book cover to cover, or at least skim over some of the important points. That way, you can get a sense of what this book really has to offer and you can return to the right pages when an idea strikes you. The book covers practically everything, from cultures to magic to religions to monsters to clothing to castle anatomy...almost everything a fantasy author could want at his disposal. The amount of information within this book is so immense it's nearly impossible not to find something to beef up a story. But at the same time, this book doesn't get too big-headed. While it does contain a lot of information, it doesn't brag about possessing everything known to man on the subjects found in the book. In fact, the book encourages the writer to branch out and look for other sources related to the information within the book. Chapter Two, World Cultures, especially encourages the author to research more information than the book could ever hold. All in all, "The Writer's Complete Fantasy Reference" is honestly complete, at least in a sense. It encompasses all the important points a fantasy author should be aware about and would most likely find interesting or look up in the future. But at the same time, it encourages the author to do his own research so he can find things not even this reference could find. I highly recommend this book for anyone writing fantasy, ameteur or pro. It's that good.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful starting point for research!
Review: Fantasy Reference is a dictionary of everything related to the Medieval Era of Europe and a bit more. This book is full of lists and descriptions of cultures, creatures, weapons, clothing styles, social titles, magic, and common structures. While the information in this book is very good, it is not inclusive nor does it claim to be (in fact in the culture section, the authors' suggest further study). The book itself is meant as a desk reference and a starting point for ideas, studies, and reinventing. What this book is good is for is when you can't remember the difference between a baron and marquess, the names of practiced trades, what the name is of a particular piece of armor on a full plate suit is called, the name of various cultures around the world, etc. It will not be the only reference book on your shelf, but more of an index to the rest of your reference.
Rating: 
Summary: Not all its cracked up to be
Review: First off, this book is in no way complete. It is sort of a basic introduction to many different aspects of fantasy. This book provides a lot of information but none of it is in depth. You can best think of the book as the Writer's Jack-of-All-Trades fantasy reference book: it gives you a little bit of knowledge in a lot of things but delves deeply into nothing.
If you really dont know much about mythologies, etc. This book is good. but you can get all this information and more for free and with registering and HTTP://WWW.PANTEON.ORG , aka "the Encyclopedia Mythica".
Rating:
Summary: Perfect addition to my library
Review: I honestly can't believe some of the detractors of this book who go on and on about it not having enough detail to suit them. This book covers more than it's fair share of topics. I think the nay sayers are simply confused about it's purpose. "The Writers Complete Fantasy Reference: An Indispensable Compendium of Myth and Magic" isn't meant to be academic text simply because it's title has the word "complete" in it. I'm amazed that any fantasy writer would take things so literally. Instead, this book is meant as a concise writer's reference, an overview or compendium of various bits of knowledge for those who are just looking for a fast fact or a short reference on something interesting that they can further research themselves. It's more a book for ideas and a brief explaination of topics than anything else, but that doesn't make it any less valuable. In fact, much like "Everyday Life in the Middle Ages: The British Isles, 500 to 1500" -- another book I've reviewed that seems to get confused with indepth works of academia -- not having to search through mounds of college level text just to find a small bit of knowledge makes it that much more valuable to some of us. I'm a writer of a dark fantasy series based in a feudal society and I've found this book not only invaluably helpful but also extremely easy to handle. Let's face it, there are just times we writers want a quick fact about etiquette, dress, manner, magic, etc and not an entire lecture. That's when I pick up this book, page to the correct section, and 9/10 times will instantly find what I'm looking for. It sure beats scanning mountains of academic text to find a simple fact or two. The introduction by Terry Brooks explains most of this. The book is easy to handle and extremely easy to use with chapters written by various fantasy authors covering everything from fantastic creatures, dress, weapons, armor and armies, magic, witchcraft, castles, world cultures, various traditional fantasy cultures, and so much more! There's something for everyone and that's a rare find in fantasy reference books for writers today. I didn't expect, nor did I want, each chapter to go into excruciating detail on every topic presented. One or two pages of explaination are enough for me. After all, I'm a big girl. If I find something of interest I'm perfectly capable of researching it further on my own. I don't expect the authors to do my work for me, they've already helped me too much the way it is. Besides, if you're like me, then it'd take the fun out of writing because one of the reasons I write fantasy is to discover new facets about my world as I go. I LIKE to research, because that's when I learn. "Complete Fantasy Reference" is really the perfect starter (primer) for those just beginning or considering the possiblities of a series set in a magical Medieval society; or, like me, for those of us who are already in the midst of their series and just looking for a touch of realism or a new idea to explore. I always have it close by when I'm writing. I honestly don't know what I'd do without it now. Highly recommend.
Rating:
Summary: Very good, but not perfect.
Review: I'm surprised by some of the negative reviews I see here. This book wasn't perfect, but it was very entertaining to read -- and, more importantly, is definitely helping out my writing. References are important for fantasy. Bestselling author Terry Brooks cautions in his introduction that writing without basis in fact is one of the worst mistakes an author can make. Running away with your imagination is -not- a good thing. This is a much more helpful tidbit than saying something to the effect of "the sky's the limit" on your imagination. A completely imaginative fantasy novel would make no sense, and readers would be unable to relate. There aren't that many out on the market today -- publishers would turn down manuscripts like that. So, in essence, one -needs- references. Hence, the Writer's Complete Fantasy Reference. It's entertaining as well as informative -- but very informative. The first thing I learned was about feudal titles -- Baronet, Viscount, Marchioness, as well as more common ones like Duke, Count, and Baron. This will prove to be extremely useful to a fantasy writer with only mediocre knowledge of feudalism -- I've already put it to use. But there was still so much more the author of this segment could have written about. That seemed to be the main flaw of the book -- it was good, but it wasn't long enough. So much more could have been elaborated on. Sure, I learned a lot...but couldn't more have been included? Especially about magic. This was a fantasy reference guide, but most of the book was on medieval culture and fighting. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it. There's too much magic in modern fantasy, and not enough of the gritty medieval details. But I still felt more magic could have been included. If you want to learn about how to write a workable magic system -- don't get this. Get Orson Scott Card's "How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy". But if you want to learn tips to better your writing, by referring to existing cultures and conventions, or how to write about costume, by all means, get this book. I'm certainly glad I did.
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