Interesting stuff for the fantasy cartography fans out there.
Saturday, 6 February 2010
Interesting map for Robin Hobb fans
A very nice combined map of the Six Duchies and Cursed Shores regions from Robin Hobb's Farseer Trilogy, Liveship Traders, Tawny Man and Rain Wild Chronicles series can be seen here. A mega-resolution version for download and printing can also be found here. The same artist has some other Hobb-inspired artwork here.
Interesting stuff for the fantasy cartography fans out there.
Interesting stuff for the fantasy cartography fans out there.
Bingtown and the Rain Wilds have always had such a Caribbean milieu, though... well, I suppose they've just been shunted up the map a bit.
ReplyDeleteBingtown and the Rain Wilds are on the southern edge of the maps in the FARSEER/TAWNY MAN books though (as well as the northern edge of the LIVESHIP/RAIN WILDS books), so the placement on the maps appears to be correct.
ReplyDeleteEverything except the Outislands then.
ReplyDeleteIve always been puzzled were you stand on Robin Hobb, or maybe this is just being dissatisfied with later books. Would like to hear your views on her.
Personally, I love the books, but havnt read Soldier Son or the new one realeased this year. think im going to wait untill the second part :)
kenn
Awesome peace of work!
ReplyDeleteSo, Robin Hobb reversed Alaska, Lois McMaster Bujold reversed Spain (for the Chalion books), who else?
ReplyDeleteHmm, this map doesn't actually include any more information than the ones in the books did. That was always an annoyance with the books - even through the Tawny Man trilogy, they would insist on pushing the same old map since Assasin's Apprentice, with no updates. The map is nigh useless for finding your way around the story. And the Liveship Traders map is no better.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, Jacqueline Carey used an alternate version of Europe for her Kushiel books, Guy Gavriel Kay used Spain in Lions of Al Rassan, France (esp. southern France) in A Song of Arbonne, Byzantium in the Sarantine Mosaic, and the UK/Scandinavia in Last Light of the Sun.
ReplyDeleteLess closely relaten in geography but still influenced by history are Kate Elliott's Crown of Stars (10th century Germany), R. Scott Bakker's Prince of Nothing (1st Crusade) and Martin's Song of Ice and Fire (War of the Roses plus elements from other times, including the Hadrian's Wall). Katherine Kurtz has some sort of alternate Wales (Deryni series) and Katharine Kerr also uses a Celtic/Welsh variant in her Deverry series. I bet there are more I've forgotten right now.
There are more, lol. Jim Butcher's Codex Alera has strong elements of the Roman empire, and David Gemmell's Rigante tetralogy is Celtic, with the first two books giving me a strong feel of the Roman invasion attempts in Caledonia. Paul Kearney's The Ten Thousand is a non-Fantasy version of the Anabasis, almost some sort of alternate history or historical Fantasy, and that brings us to another genre with tons of Arthur novels and a bunch of others (Gemmell's Troy comes to mind, or Gillian Bradshaw's The Wolf Within which is basically a retelling of a 12th century lai by Marie the France).
ReplyDeleteGabriele C., I'm not speaking of historical fantasy (you forgot Videssos, by the way), I'm speaking of actually taking a real map of a real part of our planet Earth and rotating it to get a "fantasy" map.
ReplyDeleteAh ok, missed that point. I'm not much of a map geek in Fantasy. I use them for my historical research, of course, but I rarely bother to look up places on a Fantasy map.
ReplyDeleteWell, Carey definitely uses the existing Europe, and I checked the Kay novels for you. :) Sarantine Mosaic and Lions are the real place more or less, Arbonne slightly changed but recognisable, but the Italy-flavoured Tigana looks like an upside down Peleponesian peninsula.
I love maps (and covers) so it is always great to see another one. Interesting to think about the giant earthquake reshaping the rainwilds and islands (mentioned in the LIVESHIP series) in light of how the Haiti earthquake has changed that coastline. No wonder everything re Elderlings and dragons has been forgotten in the struggle to survive post quake.
ReplyDeleteKate Elliott's CROWN OF STARS actually takes place on a map drawn very heavily from Europe, with a few minor differences.
ReplyDeleteOf Kay's 'Alterni-Earth' books, THE LAST LIGHT OF THE SUN takes place in Britain, THE LIONS OF AL-RASSAN in Spain, THE SARANTINE MOSAIC in Byzantium and Asia Minor and the imminent UNDER HEAVEN in China. Although they take place in a different world, the map in A SONG FOR ARBONNE indeed recalls France and TIGANA a mixture of Italy and Greece.
The WARHAMMER fantasy world is heavily derived from a map of the real world, whilst Westeros in A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE is often compared to a giant version of Britain sitting off the coast of Essos (a version of Eurasia) and Sothoryos (a version of Africa).
In the WHEEL OF TIME world the Seanchan continent(s) may be the shattered remnants of North and South America, whilst the Westlands, Aiel Waste and Shara vaguely resemble Europe, the Middle-East and Asia, with the Land of the Madmen quite blatantly being a restructured version of Australia.
In the SHANNARA series, the Four Lands are actually located in a re-vamped (by earthquakes) version of the Pacific North-West.
But Westeros isn't rotated (what Anon is looking for), the (Hadrian's) Wall is still in the north. :)
ReplyDeleteIn the WHEEL OF TIME world the Seanchan continent(s) may be the shattered remnants of North and South America, whilst the Westlands, Aiel Waste and Shara vaguely resemble Europe, the Middle-East and Asia, with the Land of the Madmen quite blatantly being a restructured version of Australia.
ReplyDeleteThat actually has an in-universe justification, although I probably don't want to say too much for fear of spoilers. Although one wonders what happened to Africa.
whilst Westeros in A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE is often compared to a giant version of Britain sitting off the coast of Essos (a version of Eurasia) and Sothoryos (a version of Africa).
True. And while Westeros, Essos, and Sothoryos sleep unaware, the descendants of Bran the Shipwright, on the far unknown continent of "North Stark", prepare their Glorious Reconquista!;D
More seriously, though, that's a good comment.
Speaking of reversed maps, you should take a look at what the world looks like if you see it so the South Pole is on "top". It's pretty striking - I could see someone using that as a fantasy setting model, with the northern "polar lands", "great northern sea", and the like. Heck, you could probably do a story set on an upside-down flipped South Africa (or southeast African coast), and most people wouldn't notice for a long time.
Garry Kilworth's Polynesian-influenced NAVIGATOR KINGS trilogy does that. The world is spun upside down with the inverted forms of the South Pacific islands used as the setting for the book. Then, slightly weirdly, New Zealand is swapped out for Britain (upside down), with Polynesian adventurers mixing with suburned Celtic warriors.
ReplyDeleteAll in all, it was a bit odd, but quite interesting.
Anonymous:
ReplyDeletere= reversing Alaska - I thought the exact same thing. Complete with the border running pretty much the same path as the pipeline for the first bit and the mountains where the Chugach and the Elias-Wrangells should be. Interesting - guess I never really pictured the map in my head. Glad someone else sees the resemblance! Guess there's no beating mother nature for originality, though Hobbs is still a great author.
Old thread, I know, but just have to add my two cents- the map from R.A. Salvatore's Demonwars is obviously a (very) slightly modified northeastern North America. Delaval is, amusingly enough, roughly on the same site as the real-world Quebec City; and since the big university there is the Laval University (Université de Laval in french), I doubt it's a coincidence.
ReplyDeleteWas desperate to see more detail, or at least a more relevant map to the book I was reading. Frustrated to say the least that there is no map of the Outislands. I think I might just make my own as I read the book.G R R Martin's website offers a more extensive map. Will we ever see Hobb's novels on the big screen???
ReplyDelete