THE DRAGONS ARE COMING! - FIRST PREVIEW OF MY LATEST, 20TH BOOK

Hot on the heels of Mirabilis comes my latest, 20^th book – Dragons in Zoology, Cryptozoology, and Culture, scheduled for publication next month by Coachwhip Publications (Greenville, Ohio), just in time for Christmas! Above is a sneak preview of its cover, which includes one of several spectacular examples of dragon artwork very kindly prepared specifically for it by extremely talented artist Thomas Finley – thanks, Thomas!

Whereas my first dragons book – Dragons: A Natural History (1995) - concentrated on retelling dragon myths in vibrant lyrical prose, this all-new, second dragons book is a 'facts and figures' non-fiction exploration of every aspect of dragons. So except for both of them being illustrated throughout in colour and b/w, the two books are totally different from one another (as opposed to the second merely being an update of the first, which is what some readers mistakenly assumed when first learning about it), and they collectively cover pretty well everything that I've ever wanted to write about dragons - just as my two books on mysterious and mythological cats (Mystery Cats of the World, 1989; and Cats of Magic, Mythology, and Mystery, 2012) cover pretty well everything that I've ever wanted to write about such cats.

As soon as it is available on Amazon, I'll add a link here (USA) and here (UK) – so keep checking back! Meanwhile, enjoy the additional examples included here of Thomas Finley's beautiful dragon artwork ((c) Thomas Finley), excerpted from my book, which contains more than 170 illustrations in total (some by other celebrated artist friends of mine, such as Anthony Wallis, Richard Svensson, Rebekah Sisk, William Rebsamen, Andy Paciorek, Hodari Nundu, Tim Morris, Pat Burroughs, and Markus Bühler), and including also the following pictures:

Xiuhcoatl, portrayed as a vertical Aztec amphisbaena ((c) Dr Karl Shuker)

 

Hand-coloured photograph of my mother, Mary D. Shuker, wearing a dragon-embroidered kimono during the mid-1940s ((c) Dr Karl Shuker)

And finally...

Posing alongside a reassuringly-subdued dragon! ((c) Dr Karl Shuker)