A Natural History of the Fantastic is a book that takes a bunch of the world’s most popular monsters and mythical creatures—from trolls to imps to angels to mermaids—and shows us what they look like on the inside. It’s all very scientific, of course.
The book provides “detailed anatomy, artifacts, and biological histories” for each of twenty creatures, taking a very serious approach to the question “centaurs, how do they work?”.
It’s running 120 pages, and each of the 20 creatures’ pages are “interconnected through a series of recorded histories, myths, and first-hand encounters that stress the value of exploration and curiosity in the face of superstition.”
I’ve got an old Star Wars book that works a little like that, and it was great.
The book’s up on Kickstarter.