Fiction About Maps

The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees
The April 2011 issue of online science-fiction magazine Clarkesworld features a story by E. Lily Yu called “The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees,” which is exactly about what it sounds like it’s about. It’s set in reasonably contemporary China,…
posted to Fiction About Maps |
The Scale of Maps
Bookslut’s Christopher Merkel reviews the English translation of Belén Gopegui’s 1993 prize-winning debut novel, The Scale of Maps (La escala de los mapas), in which a geographer and a mapmaker conduct an affair. [A]side from its focus on the…
posted to Books, Fiction About Maps |
Maps in Comics: In Maps & Legends
In Maps & Legends is a digital comic book series about a fantasy mapmaker who finds herself drawn into a mysterious world she’s been mapping. Kaitlin is a newly single freelance artist who is stuck in the rut of…
posted to Art, Book Reviews, Fiction About Maps |
A Blog About Maps in Fiction
(e)space & fiction is a blog about the use of maps “and other spatial machineries” in works of fiction, from novels to movies to comic books. Bilingual, in French and English. Thanks to Paul for the link….
posted to Blogs, Fiction About Maps, Imaginary Places |
Michael Chabon: ‘Childhood Is a Branch of Cartography’
“Childhood is a branch of cartography,” writes Michael Chabon in The New York Review of Books: Most great stories of adventure, from The Hobbit to Seven Pillars of Wisdom, come furnished with a map. That’s because every story of adventure…
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A Buyer’s Guide to Maps of Antarctica
A Buyer’s Guide to Maps of Antarctica, a fantasy short story by Catherynne M. Valente published in the May 2008 issue of the online science fiction and fantasy magazine Clarkesworld, tells the tale of two rival Argentine cartographers mapping the…
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Map Corsets
Representations of maps seem to be a popular source material for corset makers: Mayfaire Moon is releasing a corset in honour of the publication of Catherynne M. Valente’s new fantasy novel, Palimpsest; ProfMaelstromme offers an underbust “steampunk map corset”…
posted to Art, Fiction About Maps |
Lethal Legacy: Map Theft Crime Novel
Crime novelist Linda Fairstein’s latest book, Lethal Legacy, has a distressingly familiar plotline. From, believe it or not, The Courier Mail of Brisbane, Australia: “[Series protagonist Alex] Cooper and regular police associate Mike Chapman delve into the shady world…
posted to Books, Fiction About Maps, Map Thefts |
Waldseemüller Symposium at LOC in May
“Exploring Waldseemüller’s World” is a two-day symposium to be held at the Library of Congress on May 14 and 15, 2009. According to the press release, it will “examine Martin Waldseemüller’s cartographic vision and address the complex historical and…
posted to Antique Maps, Conferences, Fiction About Maps |
The Return of Gavin Menzies
A reader wrote me in June: I was just wondering if you have read the new book (due out this month, June 2008) called 1434 by Gavin Menzies in which he puts forward a hypthesis that the Chinese set off…
posted to Books, Fiction About Maps, Hoaxes & Controversies |
Another Word for Map Is Faith
The August issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction had a damn fine short story by Christopher Rowe where mapping plays a central role. In “Another Word for Map Is Faith,” an alternate America is ruled by…
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