I started reading the debut novel of fantasy author Mazarkis Williams this week. Sadly, the map on the ebook edition of The Emperor's Knife is not very clear. Hopefully, Mr. Williams posted the map on his Facebook page. Here you go (also added to the index, as usual...):
7 comments:
I prefer Pratchetts approach to maps. He leaves a blank page and tells you to draw your own.
I find them distracting in a book. If I need to refer to a map to make head or tail of where things are then there's something lacking in the writing.
I don't completely agree with Blake's comment above me. I think it depends a lot on the kind of book and story and how it is presented to us. As mentioned, in Pratchett's books a map can sometimes be useful but often it is not. Or in Wolfe's Books of the New Sun, even though Severian travels so much around, a map can be avoided because we want to concentrate on what he does and not where he goes. The "where" is not important. So sometimes it's ok without a map.
But sometimes a map is required. Imagine reading The Lord of the Rings without a map! Generally, I find that sometimes localization of events matter so much that a map is absolutely required. That is often the case in stories where there is a lot of politics and war, where army movements or political games or influence in a grand scale take place. Also, in stories that are based on a moving/road adventure (for lack of a better expression) a map can also enhance the reading experience.
I love maps. Before reading a book, I always familiarize myself with the map. Even fan drawn maps are better than none. For instance, in Glen Cook's Black Company I had to rely on a crudely drawn fan map but it helped me a lot figuring the coming and going of the company
Haha Dom, me too! Those amateur, rough and awfully drawn maps for Cook's Black Company books helped me quite a lot figuring out what was going on. Those books are exactly the type of book that really needs a map.
Dom and Antonakis : I agree with you both, mostly so when reading a huge epic Fantasy series like the Malazan book of the fallen, A Song of Ice and Fire or the Wheel of time...
I like a good piece of cartography, it helps set the tone of a book, especially if much travel is undertaken by the characters - as in David Eddings', "The Belgariad", a brilliant series to my mind - at least then you have the option to reference place names and get sme idea of the scale of a journey.
As an aside, Phil, I have an ongoing story on my blog, entitled, "A Matter of the Heart" - now I'm under no illusions to it being a master work of fiction, but I'm just looking for some kind of feedback in order to help me hone my writing. So I was wondering, if you had the time and inclination, could you give it a read and give me a few pointers?
I will fully understand if you'd rather not, but if you can that would be amazngly helpful.
Kind regards,
Mark
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