The World of Kong: A Natural History of Skull Island Hardcover – November 22, 2005

Many people will be familiar with Peter Jackson's version of King Kong. That movie featured a lost island near Indonesia that was inhabited by descendants of prehistoric creatures, as well as huge giant invertebrates, huge flying rodents and a giant ape who is of course the story's main focus.However, as there is only so much you can fit into a movie, we only got to see a small handful of Skull Island's local wildlife.This book provides illustrations and info on both all the creature types you saw in the film (including, of course, Kong's species), plus a whole heap of other creatures that never got featured.As any familiar with the setting will know, Skull Island is a lost world of prehistoric survivors. Naturally, non-avian dinosaurs are a major example of this. However, Skull Island is also home to many other surviving prehistoric groups, including raisuchians, therapsids, pelycosaurs, lepospondyl amphibiams and so on.The island is also home to such strange creatures as huge flying rodents, giant invertebrates, giant predatory fish, swarming flesh-eating lampreys and much more.One thing that sets Skull Island apart from the standard "lost world" scenario is the fact that it does not make the assumption that the prehistoric survivors would come to an evolutionary standstill. The prehistoric survivor creatures of Skull Island do not belong to any of the species that actually existed in prehistory, but are instead evolutionary descendants of them. One can still see similarities between the creatures and their prehistoric ancestors, but there are also noticeable differences. e.g. The Vastatosaurus rex looks a lot like its Tyrannosaur ancestors, but has a thicker, more heavily armoured skull and a third digit on each hand (T-rex and its closest relatives had only two).One interesting thing about Skull Island's wildlife is that there are more groups of flying creatures than in the rest of the world. As well as the local insects, birds and flying rodents, Skull Island is also home to flying cynodonts, small flying theropod dinosaurs (who use more of a leathery wing design, rather than the feathery wings of those other flying dinosaurs, the birds), and even a flying frog (though this is a rather poor flyer).Ironically, while one pterosaur is featured in the book, this is a species that has evolved to be a flightless creature with a lifestyle similar to that of a wading bird.The book is very well illustrated and manages to feature quite a large amount of creatures, all of which are quite interesting to see and read about.Overall, this book is quite an excellent example of imaginary natural history.

Having been an avid fan of dinosaurs, mythological creatures and sci-fi monsters since I was very young; "The World of Kong" book was a must have tome. I had a chance to quickly look through it at a nearby bookstore before purchasing a copy here on Amazon.com and was totally blown away by the fantastic artwork and creatures. Now that I have a copy to study, it is even better. I'm amazed that everything in it was totally created by Peter Jackson's WETA Workshop team while working on the Kong movie. The dinosaur variations are so perfect in style and concept that I thought this book was done by a paleontologist artist. It is wonderful to see how WETA has mixed different animals, past, present and imaginary, together to make a living breathing ecosystem residing on Skull Island. A place where dinosaurs never died out, just evolved to adapt to a smaller, more hazardous, climate. You can't turn a page without being in awe at the artistic endeavor taken to create this work of artful fiction. Granted, there are many animals in it that have direct relations to once living creatures from Earth's past, like the Zeropteryx (giant Moa flightless bird), the Inox (ancient spade-headed amphibian), the raptor-like Ambulaquasaurus and Venatosaurus (from the movie), the Avarusaurus (quite similar to the Spinosaurus), the Noctupervagus (which looks like a predatory Dodo bird), and many others. WETA Workshop did a bang up job researching prehistoric, modern and fantasy animals to bring about all the ideas in this book. There are only two other great books on the market which follow this fictional animal world style. Both are by Douglas Dixon and deal with evolutionary possibilities. The first is "The New Dinosaurs - An Alternative Evolution" and the other is "After Man - A Zoology of the Future". If you love "The World of Kong" as much as I do, then I highly recommend Dixon's books. The poorly made TV special "The Future Is Wild" was clearly conceived around Dixon's "After Man" book, but the ideas in the show were very stupid, nothing at all like Framestore's amazingly real "Walking With Dinosaurs" and "Before The Dinosaurs" shows. "The World of Kong" is a treasure of artwork, in-depth fictional history on the island and its inhabitants, and a true Kong/Dinosaur fans dream.

Some movies are just perfect vehicles for branding other products to sell to fans, such as Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Star Trek, and the various comic book movies. Then there are some movies that though popular with fans and critics alike, never seem to be able to transfer that success from the box office into the sales of toys, clothes, and other products. King Kong is probably the longest-running example of this. Hollywood has produced 3 versions of this classic story, each one dominated the box office when it was released. Yet none of them ever generated much sales outside the box office. The most recent incarnation by Peter Jackson was a box office hit both in the US and internationally. Yet King Kong toys were never a hit, the soundtrack went nowhere in music sales, and there is no spinoff TV shows, cartoons, prequels, or video games. Even this book, produced by WETA workshop (Peter Jackson's FX house), never was popular. After appearing in the major book-seller chains for several months, it disappeared of the shelves to be relegated to online sales. This is unfortunate as this is a wonderful book. Written as field-guide to the wildlife of Kong's home, Skull Island, the book explores the flora and fauna, both in the air, land and water. Combining both text and color figures, the book is an amazing read, and fleshes out the world Peter Jackson created for the big screen. Even though it is 200+ pages in length, the book is a quick read as most of the page space is taken up by illustrations. Overall, a great book for Kong fans.

Exactly as advertised, great service!

Es caro de narices, aunque he llegado a ver precios estratosfericos para este libro, y como ya llevaba años tras él, y creía que iba a ser imposible de encontrar, me decidí. Por lo demás, todo perfecto, envío del Reino Unido pero relativamente rápido, y era justo lo que quería, así que sin problemas.

Dommage qu'il n'y avait pas de jaquette...

This book is a must have for any fan of King Kong. it is written so well and portrayed so vividly that, if you didn't know better, you might actually believe that Skull Island and it's weird, wondrous, and creepy wildlife were real! with plausible, realistically possible habitats and wildlife, and all info accompanied by amazing artwork, an accurate size comparison of the animals, and text worded as if it were genuine scientific discoveries, this book is definitely one of the best of it's kind that I have ever read. not only did it meet my expectations, but it exceeded them, and I definitely recommend this book to anyone who is interested in King Kong, evolution, and realistically possible works of fiction fiction.

Dieses Buch ist ein muss für alle die sich für alternative Ökosysteme oder die King Kong franchise interessieren.Das Buch enthält zahlreiche wunderschöne Illustrationen auf denen man auch noch nach Wochen neues entdecken kann. Die Texte sind so gehalten als wäre die Insel real. Alles in allem ein wunderschönes Buch das aber eher für Freunde von artbooks zu empfehlen ist.