FEB 2016 CHALLENGE: The Goblin Emperor
Some fantasy novels have gorgeous maps in them, many of which have been done by members of this guild. Others have sadly rudimentary maps or no maps at all, and these works of fiction can almost be heard, if you listen closely enough, to be crying out, "Map me! Map me, O cartographers!"
I recently read the excellent fantasy novel The Goblin Emperor, c. 2014 by Katherine Addison. It received the Locus Fantasy Novel award, as well as being nominated for the Hugo, the Nebula, and the World Fantasy awards -- which, if you know anything about Sci-Fi and Fantasy, is a big deal. It's well-written, compelling, and engrossing, and I recommend it highly to anyone who enjoys fantasy literature.
What's it about? "The book tells the story of Maia, a young man of mixed Elven and Goblin heritage, who unexpectedly becomes Emperor of the Elflands, and has to contend with the court's Byzantine power structure as well as racial and social tension in his realm."
Now, despite having constructed a rich, intricate, and highly-detailed world, Katherine Addison (the pen name of Sarah Monette) did not include a map of that world in the book. She was clearly thinking about it, though, because if you go to her web site you can find this:
goblinemperor-map.jpg
As someone who has done a number of maps for novelists in the past, I can attest that this is a perfectly fine map for what it does. It helps the author keep locations straight in their head, calculate relative distances, etc. All in service of the novel's story. But when it comes to publication and distribution, you're going to want something quite a bit more sharply illustrated.
So it comes to me, as I have chosen, to take up this challenge--and take up this author's sketch--and put my best efforts into illuminating it in a cartographic, fantastical sense. Here is the first sketch, showing mostly the great rivers of the Elflands and the stately mountains from which they flow. I'm building on the author's framework, keeping everything in place as she had put it.
### LATEST WIP ###
FEB2016_GoblinEmperor_v01.jpg
