Comments on: The First Bookgeeks SF and Fantasy Author Panel – Maps and Visualisation

By: Pamela Freeman

Pamela Freeman — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 23:35:58 +0000

Re maps: I figure, if I as a writer need a map to keep track of how far apart my characters are and what direction they’re headed in (which I did for Blood Ties), then there will be at least some of my readers who will need the map too, and it would be a disservice to them not to put it in. And i must say I’ve found it very handy to refer to in writing books 2 and 3!

By: Simon Appleby

Simon Appleby — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 12:52:26 +0000

I note with interest that Gollancz are running a competition to win lunch with Richard Morgan – to win, you have to draw a map of the word of his new fantasy book The Steel Remains, a book which was pointedly mapless in its hardback incarnation!

Details here: http://www.orionbooks.co.uk/custom-list.aspx?file=morgan_comp

By: DeeVay

DeeVay — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 13:42:03 +0000

With the exception of a map of the Stardock mountain’s west wall, Fritz Leiber had no maps with his Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories and that map was a bit of a spoiler…the story “Stardock” as published in Swords Against Wizardry …boy, I wish they hadn’t put a map in that book!

By: www.orbitbooks.net » Blog Archive » Orbit Authors talk visuals with the BookGeeks

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:49:24 +0000

[...] Two Orbit Authors – Brian Ruckley and Jeff Somers – recently took part in the first BookGeeks SF and Fantasy Writers’ Panel. [...]

By: Julie Miller

Julie Miller — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 22:15:49 +0000

Interesting thoughts from your participants. I would like to add that maps are not only useful in fantasy quest style books, but also in books involving military campaigns. I find them extremely helpful in understanding the battle tactics in books such as George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series and in Stephen Erikson’s Tales of the Malazan Book of the Fallen.

I always study the maps in the front of the book before I start reading the story and I refer to them regularly as I read. I have not drawn my own maps where there were none, but, like Ms. Fenn, I had the full sized map of Middle Earth (and one of Eä) on my bedroom wall as a teen. I had drawn them up to scale with colored pencils and lettered with a caligraphy pen. They’re 30 years old now and I dragged them out to show them to my sons when I read the books to them. We followed the paths of Bilbo and the dwarves to the Lonely Mountain and of Frodo and the Fellowship on their quest to Mordor.

If there is no map, I just have to rely on the author’s verbal cues as to this or that city being north or southwest of this or that river or mountain range. It can get jumbled up if there is much ground to be covered, but I’ve never read a book and thought, “Wow, I really wish this book had a map!” I just like it when there is one. Wait…I do recall wishing there was a diagram of the habitat ship in Hamilton’s Night’s Dawn series. But I like to draw house plans, too.

I would so much prefer it if fantasy publishers stuck to a nice solid color cover with some eye-catching bold raised type and maybe a small symbol of the story rather than using those horrid paintings of scenes or characters. I honestly despise most of the cover art out there. While I view Stephanie Meyer’s vampire and werewolf books as fluffy fluffy fantasy light, I have to admire her subtle use of cover art. None of Patricia Brigg’s cleavage baring heroines or those awful Tor covers of Jordan’s The Wheel of Time series with Rand in pirate shirts. Yuck.

I think half the problem that fantasy and science fiction have as far as reputation in the general reading public is those ridiculous juvenile covers. It’s frankly embarrassing to be a 44 year old business woman dragging around a paperback with cover art designed to attract teenage boys. But I do it anyway and do my best to cover or hide the covers.

I’m not a Manga fan or much of a gamer these days, but I am dying to see a film series version of A Song of Ice and Fire (if Martin will ever finish it).