Fiction About Maps: A Bibliography

See the Maps and Literature category for the latest blog posts on this subject.

Children’s Books/Young Adult

• Abrahamson, Karen L. The Cartographer’s Daughter. Twisted Root, 2011.
• Hargrave, Kiran Millwood. The Girl of Ink and Stars. Chicken House, 2016.
• Keene, Carolyn (Mildred Wirt Benson). The Quest of the Missing Map. Grosset & Dunlap, 1942.
• Zelazny, Roger. Here, There Be Dragons. Donald M. Grant, 1992.

Related Blog Posts and Reviews

• The Cartographer’s Daughter (21 Jul 2017)
• Roger Zelazny’s Here, There Be Dragons (26 Sep 2012)

Comics

• Jasper, Michael and Niki Smith. In Maps and Legends. Online comic, 2011.
• Schuiten, François and Benoit Peeters. The Invisible Frontier. 2 vols. New York: NBM Publishing, 2002-2004.

Related Blog Posts and Reviews

• A Fantasy Map Roundup (6 Oct 2015)
• Maps in Comics: In Maps & Legends (15 Feb 2011)

Fantasy, Science Fiction and Horror

Novels

• Berg, Carol. Flesh and Spirit. Roc, 2007.
• ———. Breath and Bone. Roc, 2008.
• Boyczuk, Robert. The Book of Thomas, Volume One: Heaven. ChiZine, 2012.
• Brennan, Marie. Driftwood. Tachyon, 2020.
• Cockayne, Steve. Wanderers and Islanders. Orbit, 2002.
• ———. The Iron Chain. Orbit, 2003.
• ———. The Seagull Drovers. Orbit, 2004.
• Domingue, Ronlyn. The Mapmaker’s War. Atria, 2013.
• Dung Kai-cheung. Atlas: The Archaeology of an Imaginary City. Trans. by Dung Kai-cheung, Anders Hansson, and Bonnie S. McDougall. Columbia University Press, 2012.
• Gilman, Felix. Thunderer. Bantam, 2008.
• Goldstein, Lisa. Tourists. Rev. ed. Tor, 1994.
• Kirstein, Rosemary. The Steerswoman. Del Rey, 1989.
• ———. The Outskirter’s Secret. Del Rey, 1992.
• ———. The Lost Steersman. Del Rey, 2003.
• ———. The Language of Power. Del Rey, 2004.
• Owen, James A. Here, There Be Dragons. Simon & Schuster, 2006.
• ———. The Search for the Red Dragon. Simon & Schuster, 2008.
• ———. The Indigo King. Simon & Schuster, 2008.
• ———. The Shadow Dragons. Simon & Schuster, 2009.
• ———. The Dragon’s Apprentice. Simon & Schuster, 2010.
• ———. The Dragons of Winter. Simon & Schuster, 2012.
• Polanco Masa, Alejandro. El viaje de Argos. Scyla, 2012.
• Priest, Christopher. The Islanders. Gollancz, 2011.
• Shepherd, Peng. The Cartographers. William Morrow/Orion, 2022.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. The Hobbit. Allen & Unwin, 1937.
• Tuomala, A. M. The Map and the Territory. Candlemark and Gleam, 2022.
• Valente, Catherynne M. Palimpsest. Bantam, 2009.
• ———. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making. Feiwel & Friends, 2011.
• Walton, Jo. Among Others. Tor, 2011.

Short Stories

• Ashley, Charlotte. “Eleusinian Mysteries.” Luna Station Quarterly 23 (Sep 2015).
• Cato, Beth. “Cartographer’s Ink.” Daily Science Fiction, 24 Aug 2012.
• ———. “Maps.” Daily Science Fiction, 14 Feb 2013.
• Cheney, Matthew. “A Map of the Everywhere.” Interfictions: An Anthology of Interstitial Writing, Delia Sherman and Theodora Goss, eds. (Small Beer Press, 2007), pp. 207-221.
• Cuinn, Carrie. “How to Recover a Relative Lost During Transmatter Shipping, In Five Easy Steps.” Journal of Unlikely Cartography, Jun 2014.
• Davenport, L. M. “Hic Sunt Leones.” Shimmer 35 (Jan 2017).
• Duncan, Andy. The Night Cache. PS Publishing, 2009.
• Eikamp, Rhonda. “The Occluded.” Journal of Unlikely Cartography, Jun 2014.
• Harrow, Alix E. “The Autobiography of a Traitor and a Half-Savage.” Tor.com, 14 Dec 2016.
• Howard, Kat. “All of Our Past Places.” Journal of Unlikely Cartography, Jun 2014.
• Klages, Ellen. “Caligo Lane.” Subterranean, Winter 2014.
• King, Stephen. “Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut.” 1984. Reprinted in Skeleton Crew (Putnam, 1985), pp. 181-202.
• Larson, Rich. “The Delusive Cartographer.” Beneath Ceaseless Skies 187 (24 Nov 2015).
• Lipkin, Shira. “The Cartographer’s Requiem.” Journal of Unlikely Cartography, Jun 2014.
• Loenen-Ruiz, Rochita. “Song of the Body Cartographer.” Philippine Genre Stories, 15 Jun 2012.
• Parker, K. J. “Let Maps to Others.” Subterranean, Summer 2012.
• Pinsker, Sarah. “How a Map Works.” Journal of Unlikely Cartography, Jun 2014.
• Rowe, Christopher. “Another Word for Map is Faith.” The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction 111, no. 2 (Aug 2006). Reprinted in Telling the Map (Small Beer Press, 2017).
• Swanwick, Michael. “The Dala Horse.” Tor.com, 13 Jul 2011.
• Valente, Catherynne M. “A Buyer’s Guide to Maps of Antarctica.” Clarkesworld 20 (May 2008).
• Van Pelt, James. “This Gray Rock, Standing Tall.” Journal of Unlikely Cartography, Jun 2014.
• White, N. E., ed. You Are Here: Tales of Cartographic Wonders. 2016.
• Wilde, Fran. “An Explorer’s Cartography of Already Settled Lands.” Tor.com, 22 Apr 2020.
• Wilson, Alex. “A Wizard of MapQuest.” Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet 23 (Nov 2008).
• Wilson, Robert Charles. “The Inner Inner City.” 1997. Reprinted in The Perseids and Other Stories (Tor, 2000), pp. 69-92.
• Wolfe, Gene. “The Map.” 1984. Reprinted in Endangered Species (Tor, 1989), pp. 20-36.
• Yu, E. Lily. “The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees.” Clarkesworld 55 (Apr 2011).

Related Blog Posts and Reviews

• New Fantasy Novel: The Map and the Territory (12 Jan 2023)
• Review: The Cartographers (22 July 2022)
• The Delusive Cartographer (12 Oct 2020)
• An Explorer’s Cartography of Already Settled Lands (22 Apr 2020)
• You Are Here: An Anthology of SF/Fantasy Map Stories (25 Sep 2017)
• The Autobiography of a Traitor and a Half Savage (14 Dec 2016)
• Eleusinian Mysteries (30 Sep 2015)
• Four More Map Stories (23 May 2014)
• The Mapmaker’s War by Ronlyn Domingue (1 Jul 2013)
• Here, There Be Dragons by James A. Owen (25 Feb 2013)
• The Book of Thomas by Robert Boyczuk (24 Jan 2013)
• Let Maps to Others (28 Nov 2012)
• Dung Kai-Cheung’s Atlas (7 Sep 2012)
• El Viaje de Argos (8 Apr 2012)
• The Islanders by Christopher Priest (6 Apr 2012)
• Four Map Stories (20 Jan 2012)
• The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees (17 Apr 2011)
• Among Others by Jo Walton (18 Jan 2011)
• A Buyer’s Guide to Maps of Antarctica (14 Apr 2009)
• Another Word for Map Is Faith (6 Sep 2006)

Literary/Mainstream

• Borges, Jorge Luis. “On Exactitude in Science.” (“Del rigor en la ciencia,” 1946.)
• Bourke, Thomas. The Consolation of Maps. riverrun, 2018.
• Gopegui, Belén. The Scale of Maps. Trans. by Mark Schafer. City Lights, 2010.
• Larsen, Reif. The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet. Penguin, 2009.
• Lopez, Barry. “The Mappist.” Light Action in the Caribbean (Knopf, 2000), pp. 146-162.
• Stevenson, Robert Louis. Treasure Island. Cassell, 1883.

Related Blog Posts and Reviews

• The Consolation of Maps (9 Jul 2018)
• Four Map Stories (20 Jan 2012)
• The Scale of Maps (13 Mar 2011)
• The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet (1 May 2009)

Mysteries

• Fairstein, Linda. Lethal Legacy. Doubleday, 2009.
• Harrison, Colin. You Belong to Me. Sarah Crichton, 2017.
• Marcuson, Steven. The Bunting Quest. Hybrid, 2016.
• Terrell, Heather. The Map Thief. Ballantine, 2008.

Related Blog Posts and Reviews

• The Map Collecting Author and His Map Collecting Character (5 Jul 2017)
• The Bunting Quest (7 Nov 2016)
• Lethal Legacy: Map Theft Crime Novel (7 Feb 2009)
• The Return of Gavin Menzies (4 Aug 2008)

Poetry

• Bishop, Elizabeth. “The Map.” North and South (Houghton Mifflin, 1946).
• Hasler, Emily. “Cartography for Beginners.” The Rialto 76 (Autumn 2012). Reprinted at The Guardian, 4 Nov 2013.
• Miller, Kei. The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion. Carcanet Press, 2014.
• Slessor, Kenneth. “The Atlas.” Cuckooz Contrey (1932).
• Szymborska, Wisława. “Map.” Trans. by Clare Cavanagh. The New Yorker, 14 Apr 2014.
• Taaffe, Sonya, “The Direction of Escape.” Not One of Us, 2022.
• Wilde, Fran. “The Map Year.” Instagram post, 31 Dec 2016.

Related Blog Posts and Reviews

• The Direction of Escape (11 Mar 2022)
• Wisława Szymborska’s ‘Map’ (6 Feb 2018)
• A Map Poem to End the Year (31 Dec 2016)
• Maps and Poetry (15 Dec 2015)

To Investigate

• Ashley, Allen. “A Life in Maps.” The Third Alternative 13 (1997); Urban Fantastic (Crowswing Books, 2006).
• Burchill, Julie. “A Map of the Heart.” The Time Out Book of London Short Stories.
• Flynn, Michael. The January Dancer. Tor, 2008.
• Gentle, Mary. Rats and Gargoyles. Bantam, 1990.
• Gilman, Felix. Gears of the City. Bantam, 2008.
• Kelleghan, Fiona. “The Secret in the Chest: With Tests, Maps, Mysteries, and Intermittent Discussion Questions.” Realms of Fantasy 5, no. 1 (Oct 1998).
• Lewis, D. F. “A Map of Memories.” Palace Corbie Eight (Merrimack Books, 1999).
• Massey, Misty. “At Map’s End.” Rum and Rhinestones (Dragon Moon Press, 2010).
• Stackpole, Michael A. A Secret Atlas. Bantam, 2006.
• ———. Cartomancy. Bantam, 2006.
• ———. The New World. Bantam, 2007.