Books with Maps at the Front of Them

I was trolling the internet for agents’ Manuscript Wish Lists (manuscriptwishlist.com is a good place to start, if you are, too) when I saw an agent, who had marked Fantasy as a covered genre, remark that if this was the sort of book that would have a map at the front of it, then she was probably not interested in that manuscript. I WAS DUMBFOUNDED. How can you love fantasy and not love the map at the front of the book? That map is to me like the bell is to Pavlov’s slobbering dogs. It says “Ding-aling-aling! I am about to lay SO MUCH WORLD BUILDING ON YOU!” My brain salivates with anticipation. Will there be dark, haunted forests? Craggy, snow-capped mountains? Badlands of endless dust? Oceans whose distant islands remain as yet undiscovered? The map cries out, “YES, MA’AM! This story is vast, sweeping, and EPIC!”

So much cause and effect in the series of events can be precipitated by geography. Remember the story of Oedipus Rex, who got into a fight with a rich old man on the road to Thebes about who would pass first? A fight that came to fatal blows, in which Oedipus killed the old man, who he later found out was his father? In high school I always was dubious about why they would come to blows — if neither would give way, couldn’t they both walk a bit on the opposite shoulders of the road and pass at the same time? In college I visited Greece and as we drove through the Peloponnese, our tour guide pointed to a narrow pass between mountains and said, “That is the spot where Oedipus slew his father.” OooooOOOOOooooh. That’s why they couldn’t both pass at the same time. There were mountains in the way on both sides! That makes so much more sense.

The map in The Hobbit shows you why they have to go through the Mirkwood to get to the Lonely Mountain. The Atlas of Pern shows you the vast distances the dragons must teleport across to protect two continents from threadfall. The Marauder’s Map shows you how to get up to no good!

Which brings me to this awesome book I just discovered: The Writer’s Map: An Atlas of Imaginary Lands by Huw Lewis-Jones (Editor). WHY DID I NOT THINK OF THIS FIRST? I think you could lock me in a room for a few days with just this book and I would be content to look at the maps, remembering what unfolded in those places and imagining all the other things suggested but not yet revealed about these worlds.

I have my own maps for ALL of the fantasy novels I have outlined. It’s essential to my visualization process. It helps me remember who is where and what I decided to call that part of the world (it’s the Uplands – no, wait, the Riverlands!). I hope you all snatch a copy of this book and enjoy it. The editor has also been nominated for a “Special Award – Professional” at the World Fantasy Con this October. I hope anyone in attendance will vote in favor!