Hello everyone and Happy Friday! Over the course of three weeks, we’re doing something a little different to celebrate the release of hybrid fictional biography/codex of the strange book, The Resurrectionist: The Lost Work of Dr. Spencer Black by E.B. Hudspeth.
Each Friday, we’ll reveal an exclusive set of images from Doctor Black’s magnum opus, The Codex Extinct Animalia – a Gray’s Anatomy for mythological beasts (including dragons, centaurs and the like). Our mythological beast of focus is the Mermaid (Siren Oceanus) – we’ll unveil 3 series’ of 3 images each week, leading up to our review of the book on May 17. Each week, we’ll also be giving away a poster and final copy of The Resurrectionist.
Check out last week’s image reveal HERE.
Without further ado, we are very pleased to give you three more exclusive images of…
Siren Oceanus
About The Mermaid:
From author E.B. Hudspeth (read the first part of his thoughts on the mermaid HERE):
There were a myriad of other problems, some of which I didn’t get into. The obvious difficulty was the complexity of the skeletal and muscular systems. I couldn’t find adequate anatomical reference for a fish so I dissected my own. I used a large salmon for a basic understanding of how the muscle tissue was layered and joined to the bones. From there I slowly designed the structure. I tried to estimate where the human pelvis and the fish pelvis would have changed from an evolutionary standpoint. You ask a lot of questions and start to forget that this is wholly fiction. Questions like: How fast would it need to go? What are its predators? What are its prey? Regardless of how satisfied I was with my conclusions, I knew there were intrinsic problems that could never be solved simply by virtue of the fact that the animal never existed. The more I worked on the problems, the more plausible it all seemed. This cognitive dissonance made the project more interesting—to supply evidence for the impossible.
About the Book:
Philadelphia. The late 1870s.
A city of cobblestone sidewalks and horse-drawn carriages. Home to the famous anatomist and surgeon Dr. Spencer Black. The son of a “resurrectionist” (aka grave robber), Dr. Black studied at Philadelphia’s esteemed Academy of Medicine, where he develops an unconventional hypothesis: What if the world’s most celebrated mythological beasts—mermaids, minotaurs, and satyrs— were in fact the evolutionary ancestors of humankind?
The Resurrectionist offers two extraordinary books in one. The first is a fictional biography of Dr. Spencer Black, from his humble beginnings to the mysterious disappearance at the end of his life. The second book is Black’s magnum opus: The Codex Extinct Animalia, a Gray’s Anatomy for mythological beasts—dragons, centaurs, Pegasus, Cerberus—all rendered in meticulously detailed black-and-white anatomical illustrations. You need only look at these images to realize they are the work of a madman. The Resurrectionist tells his story.
Check out a quick interview with the author below, as well as the official book trailer for more about the book:
If you’re still not satisfied, you can read more about the book on the official page HERE. And you can read more about E.B. Hudspeth on his website, too.
The Giveaway:
We have yet another POSTER and FINAL COPY of The Resurrectionist up for grabs! This second contest is open to addresses in the US and will run until Thursday, May 16 at 12:01am EST. To enter, use the form below.
GOOD LUCK!
34 Comments
Trina Burton (The Bookinista)
May 10, 2013 at 5:57 amThis book looks great! Thanks for the giveaway.
superbwg
May 10, 2013 at 10:02 amI love the water creatures, kelpies, selkies, mermaids, sirens, nyads, love them all!
Kirsten W
May 10, 2013 at 10:19 amI like wendigos, and wish they would show up in more stuff 🙂
jennie
May 10, 2013 at 10:57 amI have loved chimeras and was thrilled to see them in “Daughter of Smoke and Bone”
jennie
May 10, 2013 at 10:58 am*that was supposed to say chimaera
Justine
May 10, 2013 at 12:12 pmPhoenix!
Jamie
May 10, 2013 at 1:47 pmMy favorite is the selkie. Star-crossed romance and transformation? Yes please.
jenmitch
May 10, 2013 at 2:16 pmhmm. this is a toughie. i’m gonna go with basilisk. sssss!
Allison
May 10, 2013 at 2:51 pmI said kelpies last time, but I also REALLY love dragons!
how could you not?!
C. Parrella
May 10, 2013 at 3:11 pmI was hooked when I saw the cover a few months ago. I can’t wait!
Emily
May 10, 2013 at 9:20 pmWow, this sounds really cool.
Emily
May 10, 2013 at 9:22 pmOops! Hit post too soon. My favorite would probably be Dryads or Naiads.
erinf1
May 10, 2013 at 9:22 pmI’ve always thought Medusa was misunderstood 🙂 Congrats to EB on the new release! It looks awesome!
Kate & Zena
May 10, 2013 at 10:01 pmPhoenixes.
Lexi
May 10, 2013 at 11:08 pmToday, selkies and most every day, dragons
Heidi
May 11, 2013 at 10:46 amOooh, I’m with Lexi up there. Selkies are my favorite, but I do have a weakness for dragons.
Alison
May 11, 2013 at 11:22 amDragons!
Shelver506 @ Bookshelvers Anonymous
May 11, 2013 at 12:28 pmI’m a fan of werecats (generally very snarky) and griffins (sadly underutilized and overshadowed by dragons).
SueCCCP
May 11, 2013 at 1:24 pmThe illustrations are hitting all my nerdy Biologist buttons: they are amazing! 🙂
Jae Lee
May 11, 2013 at 3:08 pmDragons, for sure. Followed closely by unicorns.
scribe kira
May 11, 2013 at 4:03 pmunicorn OBVI
Hannah
May 11, 2013 at 5:04 pmThis week, it’s harpies
Jordan R.
May 11, 2013 at 7:31 pmHmm, I’m torn between dragons and gryphons.
Matthew
May 11, 2013 at 10:12 pmThis looks fantastic. I’ve always been a fan of the shapeshifters, but I guess what really tends to get me excited are authors’ takes on various creatures. For instance, Shinn had some very fascinating fae-like folks.
Tim R
May 11, 2013 at 10:26 pmI can’t remember what I picked last week, so I must have been wrong. Let’s go with Leviathan this time around.
I.P.A.
May 11, 2013 at 11:05 pmOnly in the US? Worldwide dislike this… Though I like the book. *adds to to-read list*
Shannon
May 11, 2013 at 11:49 pmI can’t believe how fantastic this looks – I’ll definitely be reading it!
sarac
May 12, 2013 at 1:59 pmLove the dragons. How could one not?
Vanessa
May 13, 2013 at 10:15 amStill the Pegasus, but closely followed by the Dragons of Tooth and Claw
Anonymous
May 13, 2013 at 10:28 amI said sphinxes last time; I think my second favorite might be werewolves. They exist in so many iterations, and I think, at heart, they’re just misunderstood.
Or maybe not. But I still like them.
Lan
May 13, 2013 at 11:45 amThe Sphinx. I was way into Egyptian lore and loved the idea of a riddle-obsessed monster. Better than Ed Nigma.
Chetana Holla
May 14, 2013 at 8:39 amMy favorite mythological creature would be a Dragon.
Lisa H.
May 14, 2013 at 4:37 pmI love Fluffy, the three-headed dog from Harry Potter. Although chosen to viciously guard the trap door eventually leading to the Sorcerer’s Stone, the idea of a dog with three heads is appealing to me; I love dogs very much. 🙂
Lashawn
May 15, 2013 at 11:31 pmI’m a big fan of dragons and mermaids