There are few sports that are faster or more physically punishing than professional hockey. There are also few sports that can claim to have produced such a rugged, fearless brand of athlete. While great stick-handling skills and play-making ability have always had their place on the ice, it is important to remember that hockey is a team sport, and a physical one at that. The winning team is always the physically dominant team--or, to personalize the issue: Mark Messier has won more Stanley Cups than Wayne Gretzky or Pavel Bure.

Call them character players, grinders, power-forwards--whatever term you wish--today's hockey has produced an unparalleled group of strong, tough and talented players. Athletes such as Brendan Shanahan, Eric Lindros, Keith Tkachuk and of course Mark Messier play the game in a demanding, physical way. All are talented goal scorers, all can skate as well as any player in the league, all deliver punishing body checks and take an enormous amount of punishment. These players aren't goons (although they have no difficulty going toe to toe with any of the league's premier fighters)--no, their job is to play the game as hard and tough as possible.

Fearless examines these athletes in a way never done before. Stunning photography from Dan Hamilton--one of the great shutter bugs to cover the sport--is expertly mixed with detailed player histories and bone-crunching anecdotes. The result is a book as fast-paced and colorful as the sport itself. Fearless delivers in a way that only the players it portrays can approximate.