Fantasy art is as inspiring as it is beautiful, and Spectrum has been doing well to keep only the best between their thick volumes. Spectrum 12, though, seems to contain a great deal more. Every page, besides where the awards are presented, has two or three painting or images, with publishing details, titles, etc. placed on the corner of the left page. The art is categorized and every page seems to follow a theme of sorts. The sections include the best in advertising, books, comics, dimensional (action figures, sculptures, and the like), editorial, and unpublished. Each category has a gold and silver award for the best paintings, and the rest is a kind of short list of the best in the categories.

Plus, it has absolutely every kind of artist you can think of, from the darker paintings by Brom to the action-packed scenes of Todd Lockwood, and many smaller names in between. It has an image published by TokyoPop, which impressed me greatly, since Spectrum is obviously moving to include anime as an art form. It has concept art from movies (The Chronicles of Narnia) and video games (Oddworld Stranger's Wrath). It has book covers for children's books and the more risque style well known from Luis Royo. Put together, there is something here for every fan of fantasy art, and shouldn't be missed by art fans. As this is the best in collected art, I highly recommend this to writers, readers, and lovers of cinema. Very little in this book left me disappointed.

The latest addition to the Spectrum series of "year's best" fantasy art books is as gorgeous as the first eleven The art is beautifully presented in full color and for some reason, #12 feels meatier, more substantial when holding it and comparing it to earlier editions. There's an interesting "year in review" that prompted me to start looking for some titles I was unaware of and there's contact information for the artists in the book, but the main thing is THE ART. Some of my favorites this year included "The Pirate & the Mermaid" by Scott Gustafson, "Lisa & Clay (The Tooth Fairy & the Boogieman)" by Dennis Brown, "Little Tiny" by David Bowers (which was used as the cover), "Wild Reel" by John Jude Palencar, and "Elantris" by Stephan Martiniere. But that's just the tip of the iceberg: there's art for every taste, from cute pin-up to hard SF to works bordering on surrealism. Artists include Michael Whelan, Gregory Manchess, Bob Eggleton, Brom, Kinuko Craft and on and on and on. Some of the sculpted pieces are simply astonishing. A few of the works contain nudity (not a lot and all of it tastefully done--it is ART, afterall--but it's there) so you might want to keep that in mind if giving the book as a gift.