★★★★☆ Collected maps of fantasy lands

An Atlas of Fantasy

J.B. Post

Seanan McGuire recently published a story-like thing called A Traveler's Guide to Fantastic Countries. It purports to be advertising copy for a travel agency that can arrange trips to such places as Avalon, Niflheim, and The Lost City of Z. This naturally made me think of other, less tongue-in-cheek reference works of fantastic lands. Two that I used to own are this one, An Atlas of Fantasy and The Dictionary of Imaginary Places: The Newly Updated and Expanded Classic (which I will also review one of these days).

J.B. Post was the map librarian of the Free Library of Philadelphia, and also an avid fantasy reader. (I get these facts from Lester del Rey's introduction.) Because of this he was aware of something most readers didn't know: that maps existed of the lands in which many fantasy stories take place. Many of these maps were unpublished. For instance, C.S. Lewis drew a map of Narnia, a reproduction of which can be found in the Bodleian Library. That map is included in this book.

When I got this book recently, I asked myself which was the first fantasy I ever read that included a map. I answered myself, The Lord of the Rings. But I was wrong. A glance through the table of contents listed two other fantasy maps that I certainly saw before I ever read LOTR: "Environs of Toad Hall" from The Wind in the Willows and "Pooh's Turf" from the Winnie the Pooh books. Both were instantly familiar. I even remembered the signature below the Pooh map, "DRAWN BY ME AND MR SHEPARD HELPED". ME here means A.A. Milne's son Christopher Robin -- Mr Shepard is Pooh illustrator Ernest H. Shephard. J.R.R. Tolkien's maps are of course also included -- seven of them.

The maps are all black-and-white. They are not in any particular order that I can identify. I suppose Post had some reason for the order he chose, but I don't know what it is. And there's no index. On the other hand, there are only about a hundred maps here -- it is not terribly difficult to scan the entire table of contents looking for anything you want.

This is a book one could read from cover to cover and enjoy. Unfortunately, the used copy I managed to get hold of is not in any condition for such use. I will hope that someone someday scans it and makes it available in electronic form.

Amazon reviews

Goodreads review

Comments

★★★★☆ What are these people?

Red Side Story Jasper Fforde When I reviewed Shades of Grey , the first novel in Jasper Fforde 's Shades of Grey series, I asked Although I referred to Eddie as a young man, it is not clear to me what the people of the Collective are. I think they are more-or-less human. ... However, in some ways they behave like automata. These are puzzles that I hope Jasper Fforde will clear up in subsequent novels in the Shades of Grey series. Now I'm patting myself on the back, because that is indeed what Red Side Story is about. Or so say I. You might think it is about other things -- a love story, a fight to survive, a battle for justice, a cycle race -- and you would not be wrong. Red Side Story contains multitudes. Shades of Grey ended in a flurry of revelations about the Collective. Eddie, Jane and Courtland Gamboge visited the abandoned town of High Saffron, where Jane revealed that all the people supposedly sent to Reboot were in fact sent here to die. Eddie and Jane vowed

★★★★★ A good guy

The Sojourner Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding. 1 CHRONICLES 29:15 When I was an undergraduate, I read Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings ' The Yearling . It was so good that I immediately grabbed everything by Rawlings in the Cornell Undergraduate Library. Unfortunately, that was easy, because Rawlings didn't publish a lot. Besides The Yearling (easily her most famous work), South Moon Under , a story collection When the Whippoorwill , a memoir Cross Creek , and this novel, The Sojourner , which became my favorite. It's the life story of a man Asahel Linden. Ase is a farmer somewhere in the USA. (I don't remember where, but I have a vague impression of one of the southeastern states.) And the simple thing to know about Ase is that he's a good person. He is overshadowed by his brother Ben, whom his mother loves and considers his clear

★★★★★ Hot stuff!

Spice: The History of a Temptation Jack Turner Columbus, when he set out on his journey west, was hoping to find, among other things, spices. At that time there were two routes by which spices could be brought from India and the Spice Islands to Europe: the older land route and the sea route around Africa pioneered by the Portuguese. In his Introduction to Spice: The History of a Temptation , Jack Turner writes The Asian empires of Portugal, England and the Netherlands might be said with only a little exaggeration to have sprouted from a quest for cinnamon, cloves, pepper, nutmeg and mace, and something similar was true of the Americas. Spice is a book in a nonfiction genre I call "History of Substances", which I find absolutely fascinating when well done. My three favorite examples are A Perfect Red , by Amy Butler Greenfield , which is about the red dye cochineal, The True History of Chocolate , by Sophie D. Coe , and this work. Unsurprisingly two of the three con

★★★☆☆ Hit me with your best book

Hazard of Hearts Barbara Cartland I had read only 5% of Barbara Cartland 's Hazard of Hearts when I was moved to speak. Alexa, play " Hit me with your best shot "! You're a real tough cookie With a long history Of breaking little hearts like the one in me That's okay, lets see how you do it Put up your dukes, let's get down to it This is the tough cookie in question, Justin Lord Vulcan He has money, position and women, all the women he wants, including, although I should not mention this to you, that fabulously beautiful bit of muslin, La Flamme. But there have always been women at Vulcan’s heels. It’s rumoured that he treats them badly, but no one knows for sure as most of them are so blindly in love with him that they will not hear a word spoken against the cursed fellow. Here is the owner of the "little heart" in play, Serena Staverley, arrayed for battle She wore a simple gown of white muslin, her arms were bare and there were no jewels or orn

★★★★★ My Ántonia and the Titan

My Ántonia Willa Cather There are a very few books that impressed me so much on my first read that I can remember exactly where I was. Perhaps the strongest of these experiences was my first reading of Willa Cather 's My Antonia . I had just gotten it out of the Cornell Undergraduate Library and sat down in my room to read it. At the same time I put a new album my parents had given me on my turntable -- Gustav Mahler's Symphony #1 "Titan". I don't usually listen to music while I read -- I have not so capacious a mind as to be able to encompass two distinct works of art at the same time. But somehow, this time it worked. Despite its title "Langsam, schleppend, Immer sehr gemächlich" "slow, dragging, always very restrained", the first movement of Mahler's Titan symphony begins lively and cheerful. As I read about Jim and Ántonia playing together on the prairie it felt as if the music had been written for them. Titan remains one of my all-ti

★★★★☆ An alternative history Roman empire

Sargassa Sophie Burnham Approximately 2000 years ago (no one knows for sure how long it's been), Augustus Caesar became the first princeps of Roma. The Empire grew, and Caesarian explorers crossed the Sargasso Sea to discover the continents on the other side. Some of them moved north to Sargassa, where they defeated the Ynglots and established the state of Roma Sargassa. But then 800 years after Augustus, Italia was decimated by plague. A few years later Roma was sacked, leading to a general breakdown of civilization, called The Great Quiet. No one knows how long the Quiet lasted -- historians estimate it was about 300 years. Much of the pre-Quiet historical record was lost. Eventually, Roma was re-established. Five years later Antal Iveroa was appointed the first Imperial Historian. The office of Historian passed from him to his descendants -- in 753 PQ (Post Quietam) Alexander Kleios became Imperial Historian. In 779 PQ Alexander Kleios was assassinated. Thus begins our story. Th

★★★★☆ A Celebration of Winston Churchill's Life

The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965 William Manchester, Paul Reid William Manchester and Paul Reid 's The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965 is the third and final volume of what began as Manchester 's multivolume biography of Winston S. Churchill , The Last Lion . Manchester began work on this, the final volume, in 1988. Between 1988 and 1998 he compiled over 2000 pages of detailed research notes and wrote the first 100 pages. His work was halted by two strokes in 1998. In 2003 Manchester asked Reid to complete it. He was just in time -- Manchester died in 2004. Over the subsequent eight years Reid completed the book for publication in 2012. It is long. I recently read J.K. Rowling 's novel The Running Grave . I thought that was a long book, but compared to Defender of the Realm it's a mere novella. Defender of the Realm clocks in at 1795 pages on kindle. The bulk is divid

★★★☆☆ Velveteen vs ALL THE BOOKS!

Velveteen vs the Junior Super Patriots Seanan McGuire When I picked up Laughter at the Academy , I thought that my project of reading everything Seanan McGuire has published was about to come to its end. Alas, the introduction of Laughter at the Academy mentioned McGuire 's Velveteen stories, which I had never heard of. What are they? Well, here's the description from McGuire's website , The Velveteen stories began in 2008 as an open-ended series about a superhero universe where cosmic powers not only came with great responsibility, they came with great legislation, merchandising, and focus group oversight. Many young heroes were effectively "adopted" by a corporate entity known as The Super Patriots, Inc., which promised to teach them how to best control their amazing gifts. Some of those junior heroes wanted out. Few of them got it. Velma "Velveteen" Martinez was one of the young heroes "adopted" by The Super Patriots, Inc. Sweet, smar

★★★★★ Always establish a secure location before commencing foraging operations

Moment 09 -- Foxes for Christmas Ben Aaronovitch Unlike many of Ben Aaronovitch 's moments, this one is actually a story, albeit a very brief one. It has a beginning, a middle, and an end, and even one or two morals. We begin with Violet Portchester in her cabin in the Chilterns. She is in dire straits, It seemed that her prospects were bleak but often when things are at their most desperate they become progressively worse leading to a spiral of despair that ends in inevitable destruction. But then her home is invaded by our familiar parliament of talking foxes, and some mutual rescues take place. Read it here .

★★★☆☆ The Chinese Coyote/Spider/Loki

The Journey to the West Wu Cheng'en, Anthony C. Yu (Editor, Translator) There are four widely-recognized classic Chinese novels. Seriously, do a web search for "classic Chinese novels" and you will find dozens of pages referring to "The Four Classic Novels of Chinese Literature". (Wikipedia lists six on its Classic Chinese Novels page" -- these include the usual four, plus two others.) The phrase "Four classic Chinese novels" also appears frequently in commentary on Chinese literature. The four are Romance of the Three Kingdoms The Water Margin Journey to the West Dream of the Red Chamber Some of these come in multiple versions, even in Chinese, and multiple English translations, often with different titles. (For instance, Dream of the Red Chamber is also known as The Story of the Stone .) So it can get a little confusing. Journey to the West is the most accessible of these to an American reader (meaning me, of course). Every culture that I

Search This Blog