PICTURES/LINKS TO PICTURES APPRECIATED
What are some of your favourite fantasy maps out there? Which ones do you think are the best? Do the two overlap, or are they entirely separate?
I'll go first (these are in no particular order):
Map Of Epheria, The Bound And The Broken written by Ryan Cahill: I just love the general shape of this continent! And I love the art for it. Here I have the territories map, just because I like it more. (Btw the Bound and the Broken is a spectacular, lesser known series. Go check it out!)
The Known Werld of The Dragonslayer Codex written and illustrated by Sawyer Lee Art: Wow, just, WOW. The art for this one is spectacular, and I love all the names of the areas. (The Dragonslayer Codex is a worldbuilding project by SawyerLeeArt on twitter/instagram, with spectacular lore, even better drawings, and amazing spec-evo dragon species, among other animals! Go check it out! The book is set to publish this year!)
Now, care to share some of your favourite maps in fantasy?
Maps. Every other book has one. Some adore them, others see them as useless. Others can't read without consulting them every 5 minutes. In the vast sea of fantasy stories, what are your absolute favorites, and why?
Videos
I recently began working from home and am looking to decorate my office. I thought it could be cool to frame some of the best maps from fantasy series and hang them on the walls. Middle Earth and Westeros come to mind immediately, but what are some other great ones?
As the title says, what are some of the most detailed fantasy maps you have come across? It could be the map of a city, s country/kingdom/satrapy/duchy/etc, a continent or a world. It could also be the layout of a building.
As a candidate for worst looking, I submit Randland from The Wheel of Time. What bothers me the most about the map is how its seacoast is just a solid curvy line without any of the jaggedness from realistic coasts. Next is how the three mountain ranges are either parallel or perpendicular to the other, with each of the chains completely straight with the exception of Kinslayer's Dagger. The Mountains of Dhoom and the Spine of the World also conveniently form a border for a nice square map projection. What bothers me next is the borders of the kingdoms themselves. Tear's domain is pretty much just an incomplete circle. If Almoth Plain is disputed between Arad Doman and Tarabon, then you would expect for parts of it to be claimed by one and by the other. Other areas that are unclaimed and undisputed don't bother me at all, since it's actually a fairly recent historical thing for there to be no soil that isn't part of one state or another.
What are your favorite maps in fantasy books or of fantasy worlds? Links to/images of the maps in question are encouraged.
LOTR and ASOIAF for me. LOTR for nostalgia and ASOIAF because im obsessed with the series. and of course the super intricately designed map of Ankh Morpork from Discworld.
Tamriel. My friend got a super nice map of Tamriel for preordering the Elder Scrolls: Online collector's edition. I'm pretty jealous, although there is no way I would've preordered ESO.
Do you know the feeling of opening a book and being greeted by the map of the world you are about to dive in? Seriously, I always keep the map page between my index and middle finger so I can quickly refer back to it whenever I run into the name of a new place. And when I find it on the mao, it feels like I've just unearthed some uncharted ancient site.
So, what is your favorite fantasy map? Mine is definitely the map of Middle Earth. Boy did I have fun tracking the spread of Sauron's invasion throughout the land.
Bonus question: Is anyone here experienced with map design? Can you refer me to any book or website that teach elementary map design?
This is my biggest problem with buying fantasy ebooks. It's way too hard to quickly find the map when you want to check something.
If a fantasy book doesn't have a map in the front.....is it even a fantasy book? (for the record my favorite is also Middle Earth, I don't know if anyone will ever top that)
I've been researching around for the past hour or so looking at different fantasy maps. The vast majority of them are of the same look and style. I imagine it's probably because the Middle-earth method of map making is widely understood and accepted as the foundation for fantasy maps.
That being said, I know they've grown and developed a lot through the decades where we get all kinds maps from whole worlds down to town/city layouts. But can you think of any fantasy maps that are just completely different than any other fantasy maps you've seen?
I ask because I'm working on my own story that mostly takes place in a prison, so it makes sense for me to map out the layout of the prison. I found some D&D prison maps, but that's all I could find for a specific prison map in a fantasy setting.
Are there maps you've come across in any fantasy novels that you really liked, even tho they looked nothing like other fantasy maps you were familiar with?
I like the map in The Traitor Baru Cormorant, which is presented as one the protagonist drew and includes her notes on local rulers/demographics/economic activity. Super simple idea, but not one I'd ever seen before, and provides a handy excuse for why the country looks so rectangular--of course she's not drawing every feature of the land to scale, she's an accountant, Jim, not a cartographer.
As for fantasy prison maps, I recall them turning up in Six of Crows and one of Sabaa Tahir's Ember in the Ashes books--I think the second? YA fantasy seems to have a higher budget for more and prettier maps in general.
I like maps that remember they are maps for stories, not maps showing perfect cartography.
Like this map of Narnia that highlights where key scenes from the series took place.
My buddy Steven Kelliher did something similar with his Landkist series.
I love books with maps in them, it's a sign of a world I can fall in love with. I can stare at them forever. I love maps where all the locations look like they have personality and you just can't wait to find out what lies here or there. What are your favorite fantasy maps that really evoke that sense of wonder?
Good maps are one of my favorite things in a fantasy setting. They let me ground the story, place the chain of events in a physical reality - and they're just damn fun to look at and speculate over.
My favorite fantasy map overall is ASOIAF's, which I rank higher than Sanderson's amazing Roshar - because ASOIAF feels larger. GRRM has a strong, strong respect for the power of the unknown, which is why he's made something on the order of three quarters of Planetos entirely unexplored, hinted at only in terms of mystery and horror.
Roshar just feels smaller than ASOIAF, because it's more limited. There's no unknown territory, everything has its own place and meaning. The world is only as large as the (admittedly huge) story.
That being said, ASOIAF's map is at the same time almost too... grounded. Aside from having a lot of unknown territory, the Planetos map is genuinely weak in the sense that it has no real physical wonders. Nothing that's actually on the map that is, in and of itself, beautiful and awe-inspiring (with the notable exception of the Wall). Roshar is a lot better at this. I mean, really, look. The Reshi isles are gorgeous.
For a secondary mention, one of my favorite maps is a worldbuilding production from u/CaptainAsshat. He made this thing of beauty entirely in M.S. Paint - and it's easily one of the best fantasy maps I've ever seen. In a single (gigantic) river delta he creates a setting large enough to carry many, many (probably very interesting) books. I love the limitations and ambition of this map in particular.
Theoretically, I love fantasy maps.
I find well done ones extremely interesting. A common problem, of course, is that often it seems like the map was made completely independently of the story, with very little/no communication between the writer and artist. Two cities on a map are half a country away from one another. The characters in the story proceed to travel between them in 1-2 days. Not to mention that things that don't really matter to the main story on a map tend to have the most horrific, low-effort names imaginable, which is a little distracting. GRRM (and 'most' really high level fantasy) doesn't tend to have these problems. But there's a lot of it at the mid/lower levels.
On the other hand, I'm still a sucker for gratuitous fantasy map porn. I stalk this guy's page constantly ( https://levodoom.deviantart.com/ ), just because I like looking at his work, even though he doesn't seem to have done anything meaningful with it (and what info he does have on his site seems very, very standard). Incidentally, I also draw my own fantasy maps (but very amateur, and in MS Paint), and don't have anything meaningful done with them either, so it's not like I can judge, lol. There is something fun about it, and I can see how people get carried away.
I do think there needs to be a balance between 'there are unknown places for the reader to think about' and 'this map is well-done and accurate but really boring.' I give ASOIAF a bit more credit than you, because while it has only a couple of 'magical' locations that we know of (The Wall, Valyria, maybe Asshai), it still has a lot of cool, fantastic visuals; the Eyrie, Harrenhall, Bravos, Pyke have all stuck with me, and I haven't read those books in nearly a decade. Roshar, on the other hand, is overflowing with cool places, but the only things I remember are the kooky 'islands' of the Shattered Plains, and...'bead world.' Whatever it was called. I'm not sure if it's a case of Sanderson simply having too much, or if it's because he just really wants to show it off and can’t contain himself, but I find it generally less arresting and memorable than GRRM's economical descriptions that he saved until they became relevant so that you could experience them together with the characters themselves. I’m far more critical of, say, David Anthony Durham’s Acacia map, which simply doesn’t have ANYTHING interesting or awe-inspiring on it (similar to the books at least?), and the only mystery location in explored in the first book and takes all of like 3 pages. http://www.davidanthonydurham.com/images/otherlands-map.jpg
I'm sure I've rambled pointlessly here, as it's very late, but hopefully I had some sort of coherent thoughts to be found.
Tolkien's maps of Middle-earth and Arda for its history both in universe and external.
On the subject of maps by u/italia06823834 covers its in universe changes.
One of Tolkien's earliest concepts had the world as a giant boat.
I can’t be the only one who prints off the maps from their favourite fantasy series. I have a file full of them!
What are some novels that have in-depth world maps? I can't stand authors who refuse to give a map. I know their reasoning for not doing it, but it's just not what I would prefer. Some of my favorites are Malazan, ASOIAF, and The Second Apocalypse.
Avoid the Kingkiller Chronicles. I'm convinced that Patrick Rothfuss had this exchange with his editors/publishers at some point:
"Pat, this book is great, but where's the map?"
"It doesn't need one."
"But it's a fantasy novel! It has to have a map!"
"... Fine. I'll get you your damn map."
The next day...
"... Pat, this map looks great, but ... I mean, it shows where the University is, but not really anything else. It doesn't show where Newarre is, or Severn, or Lord Grayfallow's land, or the Adem school, or the Jakis barony. Instead, we get a bunch of places we've never seen and are barely mentioned. What gives?"
"Fuck you."
Gotta say WoT, which has various political maps(from different eras) published, so you can track how the kingdoms came together and broke apart
What according to you are the elements of a great fantasy map? What has impressed you the most in the fantasy maps that you love?
Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas on where to find high quality canvas or poster maps of our favorite fantasy worlds. Specifically I'm looking for Roshar from stormlight archives, but there are many maps I'd love to have on my wall. The only good maps I can find are from LotR or GoT.
Thanks!
And just to have some discussion in this thread, what are your favorite fantasy books that include a good map?
Your problem is that those maps will probably belong to the artist who made them or the author/publishing house that commissioned them. Thus if any third party were to sell prints of those maps, it would be a breach of copyright. Your best bet would be going to the source (either publisher or artist/cartographer) and see if they legally sell prints of their maps.
My favorite maps would be from LOTR, ASoIaF, Eye of the World, and Discworld.