Tag: book

Michael Manomivibul

Book Illustrations by Michael Manomivibul

Michael Manomivibul is a freelance illustrator whose work thrives on mystery and atmosphere.  Born in Boston, raised in Bangkok, he has a BFA in Illustration from the California College of The Arts. He currently resides in Oakland California.

His inky illustrations are reminiscent of an updated Grimm’s fairy tale. In addition to having a mastery of sumi ink, he’s a fantastic storyteller. The moments he chooses to capture are at the height of suspense. He highlights natural movements with unusual, and sometimes unexpected, lighting solutions.

Robert McCammon, “The Wolf’s Hour”

Robert McCammon, “The Wolf’s Hour”, 1989, Grafton Books

This novel was a dramatic departure for horror writer McCammon. A blend of WWII espionage thriller and werewolf-powered dark fantasy, the story revolves around Russian-born, British Secret Service operative Michael Gallatin, who just happens to be a werewolf. Highly principled and deeply introspective, Gallatin is a tormented soul struggling to understand who (or what) he is. Intricately plotted and meticulously described, this suspense thriller offers up a unique take on the werewolf mythos.

J Victor Tomaszek, “Tatzanski Orzel”

The Tatra Eagle: Tatrzanski Orzel by J Victor Tomaszek, 2012, John Hunt Publishing

The Tatra Eagle is an historical novel climaxing at the 1683 Battle of Vienna, seat of the Holy Roman Empire.

As war in 1680s Europe rages below, Boleslaw Radok shepherds and hunts in Poland’s High Tatra Mountains. His father like all able bodied men is off at war and has neither trained his son in close combat nor left him a sword. Boleslaw is attacked by a wolf and limps home for bandaging, then barely survives a farm raid that kills his grandfather. Four Polish knights kill the brigands then deliver Bole’s fallen father’s sword, a dying comrade’s last wish. Boleslaw struggles with two options: stay on the farm he cannot defend well or follow his father’s path to a life at war.

“Jim Tomaszek writes historical fiction in a way that takes us directly into the era of his hero Boleslaw Radok. The woods, the mountain snows, the markets and the village life become our own as we are led into his life and the character of his culture and environment.” – Professor David Moran

Barry Lopez, “Of Wolves and Men”

Barry Lopez, “Of Wolves and Men”, 1979, Scribner Books, 320 Pages

Of Wolves and Men reveals the uneasy interaction between wolves and civilization over the centuries, and the wolf’s prominence in our thoughts about wild creatures. Drawing on an astonishing array of literature, history, science, and mythology as well as considerable personal experience with captive and free-ranging wolves, Lopez argues for the necessity of the wolf’s preservation and envelops the reader in its sensory world, creating a compelling picture of the wolf both as real animal and as imagined by man.