Fabled Lands (The Enchanted World Series) by Time-Life Books

Fabled Lands (The Enchanted World Series) Reviews

• 
  Jordan

  Another amazing volume in this Time-Life Books series. Gorgeous illustrations, which mix ethereal beauty and nightmare fuel. The ancient tales are vividly brought to life by the text.
• 
  Athena

  My review for all of these books in this series is the same.
  
  Time-Life has once again done an outstanding job putting together a series. From cover to cover they are thoughtful, beautiful books. I'm starting to sound generic, but it's true.
  I'm a DK fan, I like white backgrounds and side notes with clear sections for every subject. This series has none of that. What they do have is an old book feel. Timeless artwork, thoroughness, and very well written makes these a must on my occult/paranormal bookshelf at home. I've been collecting the series slowly over several years and still have a few books to go. I refuse to go on amazon and buy them. It's all in the hunt for me. There is no subject they have left untouched. I highly recommend them.
• 
  Bob

  Tony Allan and Myrna Traylor-Herndon put together an intriguing collection of mythic tales relating to fabled lands.Divided into three chapters: Journeys Into Wonder, Realms of eternal Night and A Parting of Worlds, the editors collect stories and retell them based on Chapter subjects. Many of the legends are lesser known tales but most stem from European folklore. Each chapter concludes with a special story. The artwork is lavish and makes for an enthralling series.
• 
  Shaxar

  Still loving these. ^_^ One thing that's cool about this series for me, being a Tolkien fan, is being able to read and learn more about the history and myth he drew from when creating his Middle-earth stories and background. *geeks* This one in particular had a few mentions that made me go, "Oooh! I've heard of that before!" So awesome. =D
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  P.S. Winn

  I love Time Life books and am so glad I received a couple of boxes full. This one takes readers into the land of mythic fables with fascinating pictures and great information.
• 
  Rex Hurst

  Volume 13 of the Enchanted World series is Fabled Lands. The stories contained inside do not really describe other worlds in much detail, and focus mainly on man’s usually accidental dealings with other worlds. A lot of these are Irish tales dealing with the world of Fairie, and if you’ve read other books in this series then you know the differences. Time moves at a different rate in Fairie. While the residents of both worlds can interact and produce children, inevitably one was drawn back to their old world, this seems to be a biological phenomena rather than just homesickness.
  
  Second on the list to those of Fairie and the Irish Fianna and Knights of the Round Table who slew monsters and defeated evil knights there, were journeys into the Underworld. Men forced to risk their life in the land of the dead for knowledge or love. We’re briefly told the stories of Orpheus and Gilgamesh, and a great deal of time is spent on Aeneas, the last surviving general of The Trojan War who mythological led to the founding of Rome - which I was happy of, as it isn’t a story that is told often enough. Many regard the Aeneid as a Roman rip-off of the The Odyssey, and while it was certainly inspired by the poem, it is a work of great literature in its own right. You wouldn’t say O Brother, Where Art Thou? was a bad film because it was inspired by the The Odyssey.
  
  Overall, this is a wonderful collection of lesser known stories from around the world, though mostly from the Matter of Britain tales and Irish folklore. It is one of their catch-all books though, created to incorporate stories left out of other editions. Not that I mind, these certainly were a fun read. The art complimented the stories perfectly as usual, and by themselves are worth the price of the book.
  
• 
  Jason Prodoehl

  A sultan looks into a bowl of water and sees a reflection of a city, and finds himself on the shores of that city. These tales of fabled lands was engaging. Not as good as other books in this series. Others in this book are an Irish tale of Connla; Hadding, Prince of Denmark; the Breton city of Ker-Ys, Gorm, King of Denmark, a tale of ancient Mesopotamia (Ishtar and Tammuz), Odin and Hel. Norse legend of Balder, the ancient Roman legend of Aneas. Oisin and Niam from the Land of the Young. Tydorel.
  Irish voyage tales (immrama), and other tales of Wales, England, Germany. Rich vocabulary, and for this edition, decent illustrations.
• 
  Keri-Ann Nelson

  As always with this series the art work is amazing. This part of the series Fabled Lands doesn't have much to do with the lands at all. I thought that we would read about specific ones and what they pertain too. This was more about the people either traveling or ending up in strange lands. From Fairy to the Underworld we do get stories from around.
• 
  Katrin

  Another awesome book in the series. Illustrations from different artists, beautiful double-sided paintings. The stories were capturing, although most come from the same regions. Lovely book, I have to finally read all the books I own in this series.
• 
  Ashley T

  Another great enchanted world book! I do feel like this one was more Europe-focused than the Water Spirits one (some Asian stories I know would have fit in perfectly), but there was still a good variety of stories, beautifully told.
• 
  Kevin

  Some great stories here, but the more I read these, the more I realize just how Euro-centric this series is. It would have been nice to see some other cultures represented.
• 
  Thomas

  A series of short articles and stories.
• 
  Tracey-anne McCartney

  This Time Life collection is as beautiful as it is informative, on a general level. Eye candy.