'The Fairy Universe' by Olivier Ledroit, Larent Souille, and Olivier Souille is an imaginative art book filled with strange creatures.

In this darkly comical book, you will meet many creatures that you hopefully will never meet in the woods. There is garishness and beauty to be seen here. The weird fortunes of the creatures as well as those who cross their paths are written here, perhaps as a warning.

There is no narrative here, but the magic of the text and the beauty of the art is worth a visit if you are a fan of fantasy and especially fairies.

This artbook absolutely enchanted me with its unique artstyle - whimsical and dreamy, but at the same time a little bit eerie and dark.
Each beautiful illustration of fairies and various other magical creatures is accompanied by a short description - for example a poem, a fact about that fairy, or a short story about an aspect of its life. The descriptions were for the most part quite lighthearted and often even humorous. Nonetheless, I would still treat this book primarily as an artbook, not a guide about fairies or an encyclopedia or anything like that, since those descriptions seemed quite random most of the time and didn't really explain the creatures properly. But that made the reading experience quite entertaining, because I never knew what to expect on the next page! I would still prefer if the descriptions were more detailed.

This book was enchanting and lovely. I shared it with my daughters who are 9 and 8 that are obsessed with fairies and magic. Together we adored all the lovely things inside. We had a few hiccups getting the arc to work but we got through it and all in all thought it was a cute book. Definitely something child me would have been all over.

This book was so magical and beautiful. Child me definitely would have adored the stories and poems and the art is lovely! I would definitely recommend it kids that like fairy books.

The Fairy Universe is a wonderfully diverse encyclopedia of the Fae tied together by short vignette texts, but it's the fantasy art that is the main attraction. Due out 8th June 2022 and distributed in North America by Diamond Comics, it's 136 pages and is available in hardcover and ebook/comiXology formats.

This is a wide ranging collection from the works of Olivier Ledroit and represents different media types from pen and ink to watercolor. The pieces are diverse and many are compelling. The formatting reminds me quite a lot of "The art of...(Frazetta, Oliver Frey, Whelan, etc)" collections from the past.

This is a nice collection for fantasy art enthusiasts and a good resource for inspiration. The text was presumably originally published in French and is capably translated in this English language edition by Fabrice Sapolsky. Much of the art is haunting and atmospheric and not just a little bit creepy. It reminds me in some ways of the deliciously scary Grimm's Fairy Tales illustrated by Arthur Rackham which terrified me as a small child. There is some small amount of nudity included in the works in this edition.

Four stars. Quite beautifully done.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

My thanks to Ablaze and Diamond Book Distributors for a temporary digital review copy of ‘The Fairy Universe’ with artwork by Olivier Ledroit and illustrating texts by Olivier and Laurent Souillé.

This is a beautifully illustrated guide to various types of Fae.

The double page spreads are accompanied by descriptions, many of them comic . Some of the humour fell a bit flat for me though I loved the art. It was delicate and highly detailed.

It’s definitely a book that I would consider purchasing in hardback.

The Fairy Universe is a unique book of art and stories that documents the vast races of fairies with whimsical, yet sometimes dark, art by Olivier Ledroit and stories and descriptions by Laurent and Olivier Souillé. Although encyclopedic in naturem this book is beautiful and imaginative, albeit the art is frequently of mature content, so this is not a children’s picture book by any means.

It's a fabulous book, one of those book you want in paper as the images and the graphics are wonderful and you must see them at best.
I loved it, loved the stories and the pictures.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

The Fairy Universe offers readers keys to a magical and poetic universe through hundreds of drawings by Olivier Ledroit, the designer of the Chronicles of the Black Moon, spread over double-pages in watercolor and pencil, with illustrating texts by Olivier and Laurent Souillé. It is currently scheduled for release on May 10 2022. This universe is made up of mysterious and elusive spirits: the Elves and the Faes. Once we accept this evidence, we still have to recognize them, approach them, and sometimes be wary of them. It took our illustrator all his dexterity to be able to approach them, sketch them, and give us this guide to the most remarkable Fae and Elves.

The Fairy Universe is a stunning book. The artwork is simply wonderful, capturing the character and feeling described in the text. The artwork is a valid reason to buy this book, even without the text. The descriptions of various elves fae include names that will be familiar to fans of the subject matter, and plenty of very specific beings that were new to me. I think this book is very well done, in artwork and text, and that readers and art lovers that enjoy the mystical and fae beings will greatly enjoy this read. The only complaint that I have is that the fae and elven creatures here are very much of a very narrow sliver of European traditions. I would have loved seeing a variety of cultures included in some manner. There is a vast and intriguing variety of such creatures around the world, even relatively close to home, and I would have enjoyed seeing at least a little more of an expansive view on the subject.

This book was amazing! The artwork was everything I needed and is really impressive. The stories about the fairies were also extremely interesting and I was devastated when it ended because I would have loved even more stories. There were also a lot of creatures I haven't heard of before, which made it all the more interesting and different. I loved to read about something new, that hasn't been used 100 times already.

Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read this!

The Fairy Universe is not a narrative but a reference work on mythical creatures of fae origin. The artwork is beautiful and provides much inspiration for Dungeons & Dragons characters.

A beautiful Book about the Fae & where they live . Fantastically illustrated too. #NetGalley, #GoodReads, #FB, #Instagram, #Amazon.co.uk, #<img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/358a5cecda71b11036ec19d9f7bf5c96d13e2c55" width="80" height="80" alt="100 Book Reviews" title="100 Book Reviews"/>,#<img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/ef856e6ce35e6d2d729539aa1808a5fb4326a415" width="80" height="80" alt="Reviews Published" title="Reviews Published"/>,#<img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/aa60c7e77cc330186f26ea1f647542df8af8326a" width="80" height="80" alt="Professional Reader" title="Professional Reader"/>

Thank you for Netgalley for the Arc of this gorgeous book.
A curious read on fairies and their likes, with amazing art to accompany it. This was a real pleasure to read, light and wondrous, so refreshing.

Big thanks to Oliver Ledroit, Netgalley and Diamond Book Distributors for the eARC in exchange for a review.

This was a beautifully drawn book with imaginative stories to go with the images. Beautiful all around with cute and quirky short descriptions. The artistry is excellent and so incredibly imaginative.

5 stars

One man's guide to the fantasy world of fairy, elves, piss-trolls and more. The artwork is pretty impressive, with watercolours and pencils alike wielded to great acclaim in creating the visuals. That said, while the fairies may get their boobies and their flimsiest of knickers on display, they all have expression-less porcelain visages, and never once have a face that has the appeal the script declares. The text is OK but gets to be too flippant (and I like to think I can be flippant enough already without other people helping out, thanks), but the biggest quibble is how bizarrely scattershot this all is. It's good character then bad fairy then hard-done-by ice-skating fanatic elf, then something else, and there's no cohesion or logic in how it's presented. Yes, build up a world full of oddball critters and entities on the most ad hoc of bases, but why not add a scientific order to give it a better feeling of veracity? Random; you're here for the look of the thing.

thank you to netgalley and the publisher for granting me an arc of the fairy universe.

a very interesting read on the faeries of the world. very comprehensive with lots of amazing, detailed, sketches.

4.5/5 stars

Now that was a collection of stunning illustrations and fantastical ideas, and it was really refreshing and exciting to read. It lightened my mood and gave me a lot of dreamy things to hold in my thoughts.

The Fairy Universe is a beautifully illustrated and witty book. If you love fairies, you must check this book out! The illustrations are clever and incredibly detailed. The illustrator creates a moving air of fantasy and mystery. The text is very witty and designed to help us think about fairies in a modern way. This would be a great coffee table book and would definitely be appreciated by anyone who loves fairies. The Fairy Universe releases May 10, 2022. Thank you to Olivier Ledroit, Laurent Souillé, Diamond Book Distributors, and Netgalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Very unusual in both text and illustration. A lot of the artwork gave off steampunk vibes. Different - but enjoyable. As an encyclopedia I was expecting it to be much longer though.

You'd need to get this in print form to truly appreciate it.

Unfortunately could not view on kindle or the netgalley app. Have no issues with any other books, not sure why this one is a problem.