Book Report - The Legend of Zelda Goddess Trilogy by Dark Horse Comics
The crown jewels of literature on The Legend of Zelda include “Hyrule Historia,” “Art & Artifacts,” and “Encyclopedia.” The “Goddess Trilogy” as they are called together, these three books are dense packages of lore, artwork, interviews, and nearly anything you could want to see about everyone’s favorite Hylian Link and his entourage.
I picked up a copy of Hyrule Historia for my cousin as a Christmas present the year it came out. As much as I like Zelda, he has a tattoo of Link holding the triforce, so I can’t really compete with that. Soon after, I got a copy for myself. Just because he gets the first copy doesn’t mean I’m leaving myself out. As a Zelda fan, I would be remiss if I DIDN’T own a copy.
The biggest draw of Hyrule Historia when it first came out was the official timeline. Zelda games are notorious for being tentatively related to each other, but not exactly sequels. There were numerous fan discussions about what order the games came in, but nothing from Nintendo to confirm it. Hyrule Historia was the first time Nintendo endorsed a sequence for the games, and that was super exciting.
Beyond the timeline, Hyrule Historia gave a sort of overview of the games, the characters, and the places. It really pulled the series together as a single body of lore, rather than disjoint knowledge bases unique to each game. In a sense, it legitimized the intellectual property, rather than relying on fan sites and other unofficial sources of information.
When Art & Artifacts came out, I was curious but not really interested. I figured I might eventually pick up a copy, but it fell off my radar. Much the same happened with Encyclopedia. It was cool, and I wouldn’t mind owning it, but I didn’t care enough to actually buy it.
After I noticed that my library had copies of all three, I decided to pick them up and take a look for myself. It seemed like a fitting Book Report post to cover them together as a collection. While I do own a copy of Hyrule Historia as I indicated above, I can’t actually find it right now. Most of our books got packaged up into boxes when we sold our house and they simply haven’t made it back out yet. I spent all of five minutes looking for it before I just decided the library copy would be good enough for this purpose.
Where Hyrule Historia is a little bit of art, a little bit of lore, and a little bit of historical context, the other two books fixate on their respective areas. Art & Artifacts are just that: artwork from the games showing how art styles for each game developed over time. Encyclopedia still has a bunch of art, but it’s much more of a deep dive into the context for particular elements of the series and how they tie into the ecosystem as a whole.
In recent years, I’ve deliberated on buying the full set, but I just can’t justify it. At the end of the day, they’re effectively just coffee table books. You aren’t sitting down to read through any of them like you would a novel. They’re just neat pieces to look at occasionally and show off to your friends that also like Zelda. I don’t actually own a coffee table, and my bookshelves are already bursting. I certainly don’t need another book to take up space.
Similarly, there are books on other intellectual properties that fill the same niche. When Jagex created a book on the first twenty years of RuneScape, I pre-ordered it. I quickly forgot about the order. When it finally shipped and I got a surprise package, I actually returned it. As cool as it would be to have, I didn’t have any reason to keep it.
When I was requesting some DVDs of the Castlevania Netflix series to… watch, I noticed that my library also had a few copies of “Castlevania: The Art of the Animated Series.” Obviously, I had to check that one out as well. It isn’t something I needed to have, but I did really want to skim through it and see some of the character and environment art.
Most of these books are made by Dark Horse Books. Admittedly, the quality is fantastic: hefty hardcover with tons of detailed art. They look REALLY good. But again, they’re just for looks and collectors. I put the Goddess Trilogy on my Amazon wish list in case someone is looking for unusual gift options, but that’s about the only way I could see getting Art & Artifacts or Encyclopedia.
For what it’s worth, they’re very cool books. I would encourage fans of the series to at least give them a look. The artwork is great, and I believe they are the only legitimate sources of the official Zelda timeline; that counts for a lot. Whether you can justify owning them, or if you have a spot to display them? That’s up to the individual.
I picked up a copy of Hyrule Historia for my cousin as a Christmas present the year it came out. As much as I like Zelda, he has a tattoo of Link holding the triforce, so I can’t really compete with that. Soon after, I got a copy for myself. Just because he gets the first copy doesn’t mean I’m leaving myself out. As a Zelda fan, I would be remiss if I DIDN’T own a copy.
The biggest draw of Hyrule Historia when it first came out was the official timeline. Zelda games are notorious for being tentatively related to each other, but not exactly sequels. There were numerous fan discussions about what order the games came in, but nothing from Nintendo to confirm it. Hyrule Historia was the first time Nintendo endorsed a sequence for the games, and that was super exciting.
Beyond the timeline, Hyrule Historia gave a sort of overview of the games, the characters, and the places. It really pulled the series together as a single body of lore, rather than disjoint knowledge bases unique to each game. In a sense, it legitimized the intellectual property, rather than relying on fan sites and other unofficial sources of information.
When Art & Artifacts came out, I was curious but not really interested. I figured I might eventually pick up a copy, but it fell off my radar. Much the same happened with Encyclopedia. It was cool, and I wouldn’t mind owning it, but I didn’t care enough to actually buy it.
After I noticed that my library had copies of all three, I decided to pick them up and take a look for myself. It seemed like a fitting Book Report post to cover them together as a collection. While I do own a copy of Hyrule Historia as I indicated above, I can’t actually find it right now. Most of our books got packaged up into boxes when we sold our house and they simply haven’t made it back out yet. I spent all of five minutes looking for it before I just decided the library copy would be good enough for this purpose.
Where Hyrule Historia is a little bit of art, a little bit of lore, and a little bit of historical context, the other two books fixate on their respective areas. Art & Artifacts are just that: artwork from the games showing how art styles for each game developed over time. Encyclopedia still has a bunch of art, but it’s much more of a deep dive into the context for particular elements of the series and how they tie into the ecosystem as a whole.
In recent years, I’ve deliberated on buying the full set, but I just can’t justify it. At the end of the day, they’re effectively just coffee table books. You aren’t sitting down to read through any of them like you would a novel. They’re just neat pieces to look at occasionally and show off to your friends that also like Zelda. I don’t actually own a coffee table, and my bookshelves are already bursting. I certainly don’t need another book to take up space.
Similarly, there are books on other intellectual properties that fill the same niche. When Jagex created a book on the first twenty years of RuneScape, I pre-ordered it. I quickly forgot about the order. When it finally shipped and I got a surprise package, I actually returned it. As cool as it would be to have, I didn’t have any reason to keep it.
When I was requesting some DVDs of the Castlevania Netflix series to… watch, I noticed that my library also had a few copies of “Castlevania: The Art of the Animated Series.” Obviously, I had to check that one out as well. It isn’t something I needed to have, but I did really want to skim through it and see some of the character and environment art.
Most of these books are made by Dark Horse Books. Admittedly, the quality is fantastic: hefty hardcover with tons of detailed art. They look REALLY good. But again, they’re just for looks and collectors. I put the Goddess Trilogy on my Amazon wish list in case someone is looking for unusual gift options, but that’s about the only way I could see getting Art & Artifacts or Encyclopedia.
For what it’s worth, they’re very cool books. I would encourage fans of the series to at least give them a look. The artwork is great, and I believe they are the only legitimate sources of the official Zelda timeline; that counts for a lot. Whether you can justify owning them, or if you have a spot to display them? That’s up to the individual.
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