One of the delightful gifts I got this year was the new Vallejo and Bell Fantasy Calendar. A friend who enjoys strong, sexy women, and who thinks of me as such, gave it to me. If you like said women, you will enjoy having this calendar.

The pairing with his wife seems to have brought a softer edge to the muscular women that I've seen Vallejo portray in the past, and I enjoy the strong-but-not-overwhelming body forms these women have. The theme for 2002 is The Return of the Goddess. The women shown each month portray victory, victim, warrior, sorceress, spirit and more.

The imagery is neither overly violent, nor overly sexual. The functional part of the calendar includes clean boxes with large print numbers. Special notations include the basic UK/US holidays.

Boris Vallejo & Julie Bell's art is breathtaking! This is a great wall calendar that will add beauty to your room. Everyone that sees the calendar on my wall has to thumb through it. They are fascinated with their work, and so am I. I highly recommend!

A great read! The descriptions of the floating palace was done very well.But I think we should have gotten to it faster,instead of endless confrontations with boring tribes and plants.And for once I want the Lords to win once in a while.

First I should mention that it is my personal feeling that P. J. F. is the best living Fantasy writer. I think he is better than Rowling or Weis, and MUCH better than Piers Anthony or Tracy Hickman.

I suppose what I mean is that, of those authors I know, I like PJF the best...there is probably a fantasy writer out there I don't know who is better.

Moving on, The Lavalite world is a novel in the "World of Tiers" series that can actually be appreciated without having read all the previous books. I recommend it for anyone who likes fantasy.

I've been a big fan of boris' as long as I can remember. Ever since I picked up his book, "Fantasy Art Techniques" when I was a young boy, I've been hooked. So, when I heard of this book, "Sketchbook", I raced to pick it up. I'm pretty happy with what I've found. Which was a good supply of rough preliminary sketches, finished sketches, finished and painted works and even some life drawing aswell.

Now, Boris' present style on the other hand, is lacking that certain something. His work seems, to me anyway, a bit too comic booky. Don't get me wrong, some of the peices are very strong, but don't compare to some of his earlier works from the 70's and early 80's. Thankfully, those earlier works can also be found in this book aswell, next to his present day peices, making it a more well rounded catalog of work.

This is the first time I have had any exposure to Boris' wife, Julie Bell's work. Although not as good, it has a certain style of it's own and I plan on searching out more books by her in order to establish a more fair opinion.

All in all, it's a good book, worth buying. Even if your not a fan or haven't even heard of Boris Vallejo before, and just like to look at beautiful things, this book is for you.

I bought this book because I am a new fan of Boris and Julie, primarily interested in their work from an artist's standpoint, and it was more the idea of seeing their human figures in action, rather than looking at fantasy art, that got me to order. But, oh my gosh--I think I see now the attraction of fantasy art! You can feel the human spirit so strongly that it hurts. I think Boris and Julie could draw a piece of Tupperware and have it send chills down your spine.

With "Sketchbook" don't think "unfinished art." The works on these pages are masterpieces in themselves. You feel as if you are literally watching the drawings come to life. If you have any familiarity at all with Boris and Julie's work, you'll love seeing some of their classics in early concept form. And even if you don't recognize specific works, you will nevertheless feel the passion, the vibrancy, the raw, undiluted emotion that lives in the power of their art.

Whether or not you like the fantasy genre really isn't the issue with this book. If you do, of course, you're right in your element. But even if you don't, if you have any interest at all in the beauty of the human form, you will love this book. And if you don't appreciate the beauty of the human form, you will if you buy this book. I have a few other books by Boris and Julie, and they are all excellent. But I think this is my favorite so far.

I started reading "Enchantment" one year ago. I found I could not get past the first 35 pages. It's not that the story wasn't interesting, I just couldn't do it. I then picked up the book again recently and was able to finish it in a few days.

Card has an unique way of writing. You really have to pay attention or you'll drift off and found you've missed a great deal of information. We get into the character's heads and we can see what they're thinking.

This time around, I could finish the book for one simple reason: I was going to finish it no matter what. I wasn't able to a year ago because I thought it would be a casual read...it wasn't, at least, not for me. Not that that is a bad thing. Quite the contrary, I think that you have to find a book that you have to put a conscious effort into reading it, rather than just it being spoon-fed to you.

One quibble I have about the book is it's length. Did anyone but me notice the small type and how the space on the pages were maximized so that it was almost dizzying to look at? The long explanations were, at times, needed, but not every time. The reader does not need to know everything. I think it's satisfying when we're left with a little mystery.

All in all, this book did turn into a page turner by the mid 200s. An excellent story told with an interesting time travel twist to it.

A masterful work by Card. Weaves modern characters into a perfect blend of historical fiction and a classic fairy tale. Card amazingly manages to create a 9th century kingdom that is both historically believable and as full of magic and enchantment as any fairy tale. Card also writes extremely well. His prose is effective and descriptive and never dull. This is a book that is fulfilling to read without being difficult to read. Full of well thought out and developed charcters whose actions and motivations are realistic and compelling, and a well crafted story that does not always unfold has expected, but never forgets that underneath it all it's a fairy tale. Card aptly demonstrates that he can still write science fiction and fantacy equal to Ender's Game.

In "Enchantment" Orson Scott Card skillfully blends fantasy, science fiction, adventure and romance. It is a true showcase of the author's talent. The story is based around the idea of "What if fairy tales were true?" The plot hinges around time travel between 9th Century Russia and the 1990's. The key plot device is used well and never seems too unbelievable.

The author has obviously carefully researched the history of 9th century Russia and creates a wonderful picture of life in that world. What makes this book so enjoyable though is not just the combination of literary genres, but the fact that the main characters are well developed and can carry the story. A lot of science fiction and fantasy contains one dimensional characters. Here you can truly empathise with and understand the motives of all the main characters.

I enjoyed reading Orson Scott Card's Ender series. This book is even more enjoyable. I wholeheartedly recommend it.

I have always been a fan of Boris and his methods of coming up with a painting. But what has really interested me in his work is his portrail of the human body. Now that I have seen his book and witnessed his love for the human form, I see why his paintings look so real. The models he uses are believeable in the poses they do. I recomend it to people who have a love for the human form and also a love for Boris' work. It is also good for practing drawing the human form as I have used it for so many practice sessions.

This is a very good book with great pictures, the only reason it didn't get 5 stars was because there was no obese, skinny, or male "hindsights". If it was truly a pictorial of "hindsights" it would have more diversity in it. The pictures that are in it are of perfectly formed bums, which is good, but so is diversity.

Great work. Once again Boris Vallejo deliveres a great series of work. It was in a word amazing. Another smash!

The famous fantasy artist Boris Vallejo has produced here his photographic "homage to one single body part." In doing so, he expresses his "undying fascination with the human body" in this "tribute to female beauty."

This book contains nudity that would exceed an R rating in a motion picture.

Derrieres. What can I say about them? My guess would be that you either find them interesting to look at . . . or you don't. If you are in the first category, read on. If in the second, look elsewhere.

There are more angles and ways to picture derrieres than I would have imagined before reviewing this book. As a result, there is minimal repetition in the images portrayed here.

Mr. Vallejo primarily photographs to create images for drawing his illustrations. So for the most part these images don't have a lot else going on. They are basically partial body studies. As such, they are unretouched and unfiltered so you see the flaws very clearly (whether scars, stretch marks, blemishes, or whatever). A few have props or interesting poses, but for the most part you can imagine you are taking close-up views of classical statuary from the midpoint of the body in the rear.

As usual, Mr. Vallejo does not name, identify, or number the pages so it is hard to refer to the individual works. I will do my best here in order to give you a better view of what's in the book.

Most of the models are Mr. Vallejo's usuals (including his wife) and are body-builders. But there are also some nonbody-building women in the collection of images. Certainly, body-building seems to have a large impact on the shape and tautness of that area of the anatomy. He uses very few models here, so the images do get a little repetitive from that perspective.

The images are in both color and black-and-white. The images on the facing pages sometimes have interesting dialogues with one another, and sometimes the dialogue doesn't quite work.

The book would have been better with a little more editing. With about 30 fewer of the weakest images removed, a fine essay, and some references to the images, this would have been a five-star book. You can simply skip over those weaker images (once you identify them for yourself), and make the book more interesting for yourself.

Here are my favorites (as best I can describe them without being too lengthy, and in the order they appear in the book):

on point (standing on toes like a ballerina) (b & w)

streamers dangling from head with hand on hip (b & w)

elaborate dragon tattoos on back and derriere (color)

lying on hip on the beach (color)

dress pulled down around thighs (b & w)

wet derriere (b & w)

turned to right with hand on hip (color)

brunette with hands on back of neck with two dimples above the derriere (color)

fully dressed blonde in tight white pants and tall boots (color)

brunette with pearls and gloves (color)

brunette with dark glasses and standing against red background (color)

holding metal bar vertically (color)

cover on head, one shoulder raised against blue/purple background (color)

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I suppose what makes this book most unusual is that it addresses a part of our anatomy that it is hard for us to see, except on others. Does that change our perspective? I think so. I suspect it makes us more objective.

After you finish viewing these images, my suggestion is that you take some body part that appeals to you (whether eyes, ears, neck, arms, or whatever) and take a few days to notice them on everyone you see. This will be good experience in helping you become more observant, as well as letting you develop your taste. After you have done this with one area, try it with another one. Keep doing it until you find yourself capturing the personality of people better through what you can observe in these ways. Be sure to consider posture as one of your views.

Get past the surface, to the reality within, through careful observation!

While overall the photoes were terrific, I was a bit turned off by the few images of the woman in jeans and boots. A bit too "hicky" for my taste, and all you really saw was...well, a woman in jeans. Also, it appears all the "tushes" are of women. Sometimes I get tired of people only thinking the female form is beautiful. Men are beautiful too.

I was lucky enough to interview this artistic genius many years ago, and it's great to see that his talent keeps expanding. Boris has a passion for the derriere, epitomized by his paintings but also perfectly represented in this collection of his photographs. If you're a fanny fan, this book is for you.

Chronologically this IS the last adventures of Conan. He's an old man now, and after this adventure he doesn't return to his homeland; prefering to let his son Conn rule Aquilonia.

A decent read, and better than most crappy Conan-novels not written by Robert E. Howard, though still lacking that certain pulp feeling.

The book starts extremely well with one of the best scenes ever written about Conan (The tavern scene). It's forever burned into my brain. Burn it into yours. The second half lags a bit but over all it's very entertaining. The Isles is an important book in the Conan series because it's the last Conan story. Conan shows that even at 60+ he's still got more than it takes. Great ending.

Back in the mid-60's, when Lancer Books reissued the original Conan stories by Robert E. Howard, they enlisted the aid of L. Sprague DeCamp and Lin Carter to polish Howard's grammar, soften his more "politically incorrect" statements, and fill out the saga with pastiches. This, the last of the stories, is 100% pastiche, but it still has the flavor of Howard's barbarian. I first read it as a teenager, but now that I have passed the half century mark, the story has new resonance. In this adventure Conan anticipates George Foreman by several millenia. He may be old; he may not be the man he once was; but he can still outmuscle most foes, and those he can't outmuscle, he can outfox. At the conclusion of the book you might just get a little misty-eyed when Conan ends his adventure and sails off into the mists of time, never to be heard from again.

I really got a shock at some of the reviews of this book. About ten years ago, Shapechangers was one of the very first fantasy books I ever read, and despite moving on to more sophisticated, perhaps better written members of the genre, this book still remains one of my all time faves (as does the whole series). Particularly startling to me was the lack of feeling for Alix, who I've always loved very dearly as a very strong, amazing character. I think one of the reviewers of Shapechangers was quite correct when they pointed out the role of noblesse oblige in The Chronicles of the Cheysuli. I never really liked Carillon or Duncan (I always loved Finn too much, just as later in the series I preferred the Corin's and the Kellin's to the Brendan's) but I had to respect their integrity and sense of responsibilty. If anyone found some of the choices made by the characters in this series a little strange or too treacle-y (as one reviewer found Alix's marriage), perhaps they had not yet formed a coherent conception of tahlmorra and what it entails in the lives of the Cheysuli. I normally don't get attracted to prophecy-type fantasy, but the Cheysuli prophecy was strong enough to sustain me across the eight books of this series. Of the series, the first and the last books remain my favourites. I think Shapechangers seems even more poignant after having read the others - poor babe didn't know what she was getting herself in for! No seriously, the simplicity of Shapechangers and the focus upon Alix was very beautiful (the later books necessarily being broader in scope), and I thank Jennifer Roberson heartily for providing me such a heroine (a very human heroine, at that!) in my early youth and for providing me with the dream of Homana and the Cheysuli full stop.

this book was so good. It is impossible to put it down! The characters are so real, the emotions are so real, the only thing that doesn't seem real is the setting and sometimes the things that the chacters do. I've just read the whole series, and this is the best of the bunch. However, After u read this one, you just have to keep going until you know what happens at the end. The only problems with this series, and that is that the author tends to skip bits and pieces of the history. You even learn a new language (sort of) These books seem like they should keep going after the end, and I truely regret that they don't. Read this one . . . and keep reading!

the chronicles of the chysuli have been one of my favourite fantasy series for years. this book is one of the best, along with daughter of the lion; this series feature strong believable characters, men as well as women, and a prophecy spanning a century. plus, the two warring magic races - the use of magic - it's all written so well and the story is so gripping... i only wish there were more.

This book contains many nude photographs done in ways that would cause the book to receive an R rating if it were a motion picture.

Boris Vallejo is well known for his fantasy illustrations of strong men and women. To create those illustrations, he often creates photographs of his models rather than having them pose for extended periods of time. This book contains many images that he has used for that purpose. For long-time Vallejo fans, part of the interest in this book will be seeing the models he was using. This allows you to see more clearly what Vallejo adds through selecting the models, posing them, and employing his illustration style.

Since these images were created as intermediary subjects, they do not have the usual focus on composition, lighting, or personality. As such, these vibrant people often come across like partially decayed statues done in marble by a long-deceased Roman or Greek sculptor.

The most interesting part of the photographs themselves is that they reveal aspects of the human form that you have probably not seen before. Most of the models are female bodybuilders (including Mr. Vallejo's wife and sister). Most of us have an image of what bodybuilders look like in a competition. These photographs are less extreme, taken when a model is usually not "pumped up" to competition shape and with less extreme poses. Because there is little use of filters (and no retouching that I noticed), these people reveal their warts and scars as well as their muscles. I found the contrasts to be fascinating. Rather than making the images less attractive, the contrast for me made the most beautiful sections of the model's body even more idealized. In many cases, it's a jaw line, or a neck, or part of the curve of the shoulder that draws your attention. But by being in very good shape, there's a lot of muscle that creates slightly exaggerated curves in many places against taut skin that makes for very appealing shapes.

In some situations, the models pose with all kinds of fantasy gear, including weapons. This actually enhances the contrasts in favor of seeing the person has more powerful -- to hold such a dangerous weapon while unclothed requires great self-confidence.

I also came away from this book having a greater appreciation for Mr. Vallejo's illustrations. They are much closer to real life than I would have ever imagined. I had always found them to seem exaggerated, and thus unfairly dismissed them as overdone. But his illustrations are not much more than an idealization of the real thing, as portrayed here.

I would normally tell you what my favorite images are from the book. Since there were no names, titles, dates, or page numbers, it is hard to reference them. From a photography perspective, the image of the pregnant woman was clearly one of the best. I found that his female photographs were more appealing than his male ones, probably because the models were less distorted by muscles. The women seemed healthy and vibrant, rather than muscle-dominated. But that's probably just a matter of personal taste.

After you finish this book, perhaps you should think about how you can use photography to help you accomplish important tasks in your life. Where would it help to have real-life models? Where can a photograph record reality better than any other method, including your memory? If you move 20 years into the future, what would you miss if you had not photographed it?

Be open to appreciating people and beauty in new ways!

Boris Vallejo is well known for his fantasy art. Specifically for his incredibly muscular voluptous and scantily clad ladies. Although, he also is responsible for the incredibly buff males who wear just as little clothing (look for his work on Conan: the Barbarian)
Teamed with his wife, Julie Bell who is a body builder and accomplished artist in her own right (you will see many pictures of her nude in this book), the two have published tons of illustration books. These books attract all different fans, from those who just use them as soft porn to those who really appreciate the illustrative techniques, and fantasy enthusiasts of all sorts. Most people who looked at these books have to go at some point, usually in discust, THERE ARE NO REAL PEOPLE WHO LOOK LIKE THIS!
Well...um...I said that too, and looking at this photography, I have to munch those words. (Pass the ketchup?) The beautiful black and white photography of these incredible hardbodies proves that yes there are some real live people who really do look like fantasy superheros/heroines. (Except honestly, the breasts on the women are usually, but not always smaller, since breasts are mostly fat)
Then there is the irony of this book, in that we are being presented with larger than life looking bodybuilders, seemingly so perfect, but they are presented to us very candidly, with scars and freckles and body hair. It's wonderful. I think fans of Boris Vallejo will really appreciate this book.

Most people who are familiar with Boris Vallejo's work know him as a fantasy illustrator. He is on of the best in his field, producing strong, graphic images of physically impressive people. I was surprised to discover that most often Vallejo works from life, or photographs of models.

Originally Vallejo used a professional photographer, but he became interested in photographer and began to do his own work. He brings to his black and white photographic images the same intensity that he uses in his illustration. No doubt due in part to his interest in body building Vallejo's perception of beauty is a bit different from the photographic norm.

Vallejo's women are not the slim ephemeral beauties that inhabit the fantasies of your average, slightly flabby, American male. These women are people to contend with, who hand swords and armor with the same facility we do Palm Pilots. Using these strong thewed yet remarkably sensual women (and men too) Vallejo creates images of refined quality with a startling sense of natural form and flow. They lack the excessive strain that sometimes appears in photos of body builders.

Vallejo uses medium format cameras to create images of extreme detail, and is unafraid to include the scars and bumps along with the lush sensuality of skin and hair. As such there is a dimensional effect which can be hypnotic. Some might quibble over whether this is fine art photography, but these are striking, unforgettable images.

The amazing world of Boris Vallejo is condensed down into this picture book of god like bodies and fairytail fantasy scenes. Shown are some of his movie work, clothing ad work, Franklin Mint and his most favorite subject, his wife, Julie Bell.

There are some comedy moments of his works as well, including a portrait of the then president of the United States, Bill Clinton. He explains that some of his works have been described as too relvealing esspecially of his wife Julie. But as the pictures show when one gets over the fact, they are quite beautiful.

A book mainly for the older reader, artist or Vallejo fans only.

I love this book because it has lots of beautiful paintings from the author. I like this book more than the Titans. The artworks from Titans doesn't stand out or look as clean as the ones from in this book. This book has pictures ranging from mythical beings and animals, to futuristic designs. The disadvantage about this book is the non appealing art cover and its high price. Overall, it's an excellent reference book.

I have no idea what the person from dallas is talking about. I loved this work of Boris. I espsecially loved the Sections on the mythical beasts, and women of wonder. This is my best Boris book yet. I challenge any artist to match boris in the worlds of magic and fantasy. A definate must for all boris and fantasy fans.