SFF: The 5 Book Maps That Could Be/Are Works of Art

The Sunday Fun Five #26

Sunday Fun 5:

#1: The 5 Stages of Reading a Bad Book

#2: The 5 Literary Antagonists You Hope You Never Meet

#3: The 5 Realms of the Written Word You Wish You Never Left

#4: The 5 Authors You Would Revive, If Only For a Day
#5: The 5 Books That Define You as a Person and a Reader
#6: The 5 Genres (or Subgenres) You Never Get Tired Of
#7: The 5 Husband-Material Characters You Wish Were Real
#8: The 5 Books You'd Rather Steal Than Wait For (To Be Published)
#9: The 5 Alternate Blog Names For Your Blog
#10: The 5 Books That Make You Want to Go Places
#11: The 5 Fatal Mistakes of an Author (Literary Pet Peeves)
#12: The 5 Stories/Books that Never Cease to Scare You
#13: The 5 Unluckiest Characters in Books
#14: The 5 Books You're Most Grateful For (that you've read in 2014)
#15: The 5 Things Book Bloggers are Most Thankful For
#16: The 5 Best Gifts For Book Lovers

#17: The 5 Books You Hope to Read in 2015

#18: The 5 Characters You Have New Year's Resolutions For

#19: The 5 Books To Kickstart Your Reading Journey
#20: The 5 Character Couples that are Matches Made in Heaven
#21: The 5 Unconventional Romances that Somehow Worked for You
#22: The 5 Books That Remind You of Spring
#23: The 5 Irish Authors Whose Works You Want to Read More Of
#24: The 5 Books With Endings that Made You Mad
#25: The 5 Sunday Fun Fives I Had the Most Fun With
#26: The 5 Book Maps That Could Be/Are Works of Art
For the 10th of May: #27: The 5 Books You've Been Meaning to Review But Haven't Yet

Feel free to participate by commenting below or writing a blog post: I wrote up some guidelines for blog participation here.

A Countdown of

The 5 Book Maps That Could Be/Are Works of Art

From Entropy

5. A Map of Middle Earth from The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien
This is the classic fantasy map: many (or most) fantasy maps try to emulate this one. As a classic piece of map-art, it's great, but some maps are a bit more functional/user-eye-friendly than this one.

From Entropy

4. A Map of Florin and Guilder from The Princess Bride by William Goldman
More decorative than functional, this map of Florin and Guilder captures the spirit of the book in brilliant turquoise color. Still, it was this map that made me want to finally pick up the book again- I think I may have read it before, but my book memories are somewhat murky on whether I have or not.

From Geek

3. A Map of Westeros and Essos from the A Song of Ice and Fire Series by George R.R. Martin
The original map that came with the books isn't that lovely- but with a little help from rabid fans (and/or the HBO series), we now have realistic maps of Westeros to aid you in your A Song of Ice and Fire travels. The one I've linked to even has an interactive version you can play with.

From The Stormlight Archive Wikia

2. A Map of Roshar from The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson
I like this map mainly because it shows you how huge the world of Roshar is, and what little we've seen of parts of it (as of the second book in a ten tome series). Nothing makes me more excited to read the third book in the series than this map, except maybe that the series kept getting better for me as I read more.

From Harry Potter Wikia

1. The Marauder's Map from the Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling
This map gets an A+ in functionality: not only is it pretty to look at- it also shows you where someone is. For that reason, the Marauder's Map takes the cake as far as bookish maps go, as long as you solemnly swear you are up to no good, that is.

A Notable Exclusion:

From David Anthony Durham's Website

A (Complete) Map of the Known World from the Acacia series by David Anthony Durham
This is another of my favorites, but mainly because when you begin the series, much like A Song of Ice and Fire, you are confined to one area. And the area in play broadens with each book until the third, when you get this huge map. Not many series have as much depth in their maps as this one does.

What's your favorite literary map? Do you use the maps that come with books, or do you just power through without referencing it?