Cryptozoologicon

A selection of 28 creatures from the pages of cryptozoological literature, this is an entertaining look at a range of claimed “monsters”. Ranging from the famous (yeti, bigfoot) to the relatively obscure (Cadborosaurus, De Loy's ape) to a few that I confess I'd not even heard of (the mbielu-mbielu-mbielu, for instance), each gets a page or two of discussion and a large, full-colour illustration.

The discussion for each beast is in three parts: what the legend says, what it might actually be, and how it would fit into our understanding of biology if it turned out to be real. With regard to the second section, there isn't always a clear answer, and not everything in here is inherently ridiculous. (A lot of them are, though, at least if they've been accurately described by those who claim to have seen them).

The third part of the analysis is often the most entertaining. Some of it is a little technical at times, but the imaginative game of “if it were real, what would it be?” is a fun one to play, and comes up with some suitably bizarre answers. Having done something similar myself with imaginary creatures, I have to say I enjoyed the scientific names they came up with for some of them... although that might just be my sense of humour!

Probably not a great book to read if you think that bigfoot is absolutely real, and don't want it treated together with the truly barking mad, or with anything other than total seriousness. This book does have something of a mocking tone at times, if the “monster” is sufficiently bonkers, which might put some off.

For the most part, though, it's a fun and interesting read, with some semi-serious speculative zoology that should appeal to people that liked, say, Dixon's After Man. And where else will you find a cladogram of bunyip evolution, or a painting of a fifty foot prawn?