In Sea Monsters, Joseph Nigg (How to Raise and Keep a Dragon) takes the reader on a guided tour through Olaus Magnus's 16th-century map of Northern Europe and its accompanying book of commentary. Nigg charts a course through the waters of this cartographic masterpiece and its cryptozoological inhabitants, sailing north from the southwest coast of Norway past the ray-like rockas, giant lobsters, beached whales, and sea serpents, to the greatest of all sea monsters--the Kraken.
Nigg provides Magnus's own descriptions of each beast, then discusses its place in traditional monster lore and legacy in later maps and natural histories. It's easy for a map-loving reader to follow along, especially since the book jacket unfolds into a copy of Magnus's map.
Sea Monsters is a lavishly illustrated combination of whimsy and scholarship that should appeal to fans of maps, monsters and high fantasy. --Pamela Toler, blogging at History in the Margins