{"id":1808755,"date":"2022-08-26T11:31:23","date_gmt":"2022-08-26T15:31:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=1808755"},"modified":"2022-08-26T11:32:02","modified_gmt":"2022-08-26T15:32:02","slug":"mapping-the-spear-cuts-through-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2022\/08\/mapping-the-spear-cuts-through-water\/","title":{"rendered":"Mapping ‘The Spear Cuts Through Water’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Map
Chris Panatier<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At Tor.com, Simon Jimenez talks about the map<\/a> that accompanies his upcoming epic fantasy novel, The Spear Cuts Through Water<\/em><\/a>. It\u2019s not a map that follows the default fantasy map design by any stretch. He starts with the map, drawn by Chris Panatier<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There is no compass rose for orientation, no place names, no handy scale for distance ratios so that a reader might be able to tell how far one location is from another. There are barely even locations. Even the perspective is different\u2014not a bird\u2019s eye view, but something closer and more intimate, for a better view of the imagery that leans away from literalism and more towards the metaphorical, and the eerie.<\/p>\n

Because of all of these choices, it is not a particularly useful map. One would be hard-pressed to use it as a reference tool as they journeyed with the characters through the book. This is by intention.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jimenez explains how he grappled with the idea<\/em> of mapping, and of fantasy mapping, when decided whether, and how, to include a map in his book. Very insightful and worth reading (and I\u2019m not just saying that because he name-checks me at the end).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At Tor.com, Simon Jimenez talks about the map that accompanies his upcoming epic fantasy novel, The Spear Cuts Through Water. It\u2019s not a map that follows the default fantasy map design by any stretch. He… More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[31],"class_list":["post-1808755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-maps-and-literature","tag-fantasy-maps","post_format-post-format-link"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1789040,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2020\/07\/creating-a-fantasy-map-in-photoshop\/","url_meta":{"origin":1808755,"position":0},"title":"Creating a Fantasy Map in Photoshop","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"25 July 2020","format":"link","excerpt":"Chris Spooner\u2019s step-by-step tutorial on how to create a fantasy map in Photoshop offers some insights on how to create the look and feel of a digitally generated fantasy map with Photoshop. Because its method of generating land masses is more or less random (it uses the cloud rendering tool\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Imaginary Maps"","block_context":{"text":"Imaginary Maps","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/imaginary-maps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3863,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2017\/02\/50-fantasy-states\/","url_meta":{"origin":1808755,"position":1},"title":"50 Fantasy States","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"5 February 2017","format":"link","excerpt":"50 Fantasy States is Chris Engelsma's ongoing project to create fantasy-style maps of all 50 U.S. states. Six have been completed so far, including the above fantasy map of Alaska.","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/50-fantasy-states-ak.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/50-fantasy-states-ak.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/50-fantasy-states-ak.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/50-fantasy-states-ak.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5187,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2017\/10\/the-perplexing-river-systems-of-middle-earth\/","url_meta":{"origin":1808755,"position":2},"title":"‘The Perplexing River Systems of Middle-earth’","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"11 October 2017","format":"link","excerpt":"Having ruffled fannish feathers with a post critiquing Middle-earth's mountains and another admitting that\u00a0they don't like fantasy maps, Alex Acks returns with a Tor.com post about the problems with Middle-earth's river systems. Specifically, the Anduin, which breaks all kinds of hydrological rules: it cuts across mountain ranges (and parallels the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Maps and Literature"","block_context":{"text":"Maps and Literature","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/maps-and-literature\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5646,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2013\/08\/a-fantasy_map-of-ireland\/","url_meta":{"origin":1808755,"position":3},"title":"A Fantasy Map of Ireland","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"5 August 2013","format":"image","excerpt":"Another data point for our consideration of what people think a fantasy map looks like, from the author of the Maptitude tumblelog: a fantasy map of Ireland, replete with, as you would expect, forests and hills. It departs from the fantasy map paradigm by using colour: red for political boundaries,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1789658,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2020\/11\/lord-of-maps-more-real-world-fantasy-maps\/","url_meta":{"origin":1808755,"position":4},"title":"Lord of Maps: More Real-World Fantasy Maps","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"22 November 2020","format":"link","excerpt":"Here\u2019s another map artist who draws maps of real-world places in the style of fantasy maps: Isaac of Lord of Maps has around 30 maps\u2014mostly of U.S. states, but also a few countries and one city\u2014available for sale as prints of various sizes. Style-wise they\u2019re dead ringers for Christopher Tolkien\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/lord-of-maps-ky-1024x499.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/lord-of-maps-ky-1024x499.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/lord-of-maps-ky-1024x499.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/lord-of-maps-ky-1024x499.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2289,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/06\/a-fantasy-map-of-north-america\/","url_meta":{"origin":1808755,"position":5},"title":"A Fantasy Map of North America","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"22 June 2016","format":"link","excerpt":"The latest map of the real world done in the style of fantasy maps (remember: fantasy maps have a distinct style), at least that I've encountered, is this map of North America offered by Etsy seller Aoraki Maps. (They also have one of the southeastern U.S.) The style is very\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"aoraki-fantasy-north-america","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/aoraki-fantasy-north-america-1024x734.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/aoraki-fantasy-north-america-1024x734.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/aoraki-fantasy-north-america-1024x734.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/aoraki-fantasy-north-america-1024x734.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1808755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1808755"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1808755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1808759,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1808755\/revisions\/1808759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1808755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1808755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1808755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}