You are looking at Atlas Animalia. And really, in this reviewer's opinion, reading it is somewhat similar to perhaps studying an animal encyclopedia. The main advantage to have here, primarily, is to broaden your own perception of traditional DnD monster staples. For the longest time, legendary monsters blended features of various real (if exaggerated) animals in various proportions. So what this book does, in a nutshell, is show you some ideas of how monsters blended from animal (okay, okay, and mushrooms in case of Myconids and plants in case of Treants. Let's not get too technical here) features could differ from one region to another. And really, in a way, it's fascinating!

Every creature in the book gets four variations, each provided with a decent illustration (though perhaps not as utterly impressive as the full page illustrations Metal Weave Games' Baby Bestiary had) and a (primarily lore-oriented) description. Having backed two volumes of Baby Bestiary and now Atlas Animalia - I am certainly not underwhelmed. Lore hooks are plenty, and it raises interesting questions - the diversity of creatures and the options of making them more distinctive depending on where your party is adventuring.

Now what this isn't, is it's not a crunchy supplement giving you alternative stats with which to surprise a number-savvy party of heroes. But then, it doesn't need to be, because it's not the point. An important part of roleplaying comes from narrative and honestly, having as much fuel for that fire as possible is a great thing in my book. Besides, look at it this way! You are not being forced to apply it to any single system!

Ultimately, Atlas Animalia isn't something a creative DM couldn't come up with. But it does a fantastic job giving the mind a jolt (both visual and narrative) and get you pondering variations. Not an absolute must-have, perhaps, but certainly a worthy collector's item to broaden one's horizons!