Gateway: the Book of Wizards is one of the first Kickstarters I ever backed, and I finally received a week or two ago.
It contains nearly 100 illustrations that take you on a tour of an elaborate fantasy world, an urban-magical setting named Gateway. Gateway is a city populated by an authoritarian anti-magic government and ironically, wizards of every stripe, shape, and color.
The book reads much like
Dinotopia, a series I treasured as a child, or even something like
Brian Froud's work or the 1970's classic
Gnomes, in that it creates a portrait of a world, in a book, without really being a story of it's own. In that sense, it lies somewhere between art book and fantasy novel.
I found the book delightful. The art, which of course is the primary focus, sings, each wizard character having a distinct and delightful personality of their own. And the short chapters that accompanied each one were often just as strange and interesting. Case in point, when one is speaking about a magical barn that can read the future, the short text piece is actually a bit more interesting than the picture. Also, giant fish, people that become plants, people that become birds, paleomancy, vapormancy, ornithomancy, and maschramancy.
If you're not sold, I don't know exactly what you are looking for from me.
You can purchase the book at author Sean Andrew Murray's
Etsy store.
