June 2012 – The Map Room

A Scholarly Work on Fantasy Maps

Published on 20 June 201219 October 2017 by Jonathan Crowe

I knew that Swedish literary scholar Stefan Ekman has been studying fantasy maps—see, for example, this blog post of his—but I only found out today (thanks to the Locus forthcoming books listings) that he has a book coming out on the subject: Here Be Dragons: Exploring Fantasy Maps and Settings will be published by Wesleyan University Press in January 2013.

The publisher calls it the “first in-depth study of the use of landscape in fantasy literature”; here’s an excerpt from their description:

In Here Be Dragons, Stefan Ekman provides a wide-ranging survey of the ubiquitous fantasy map as the point of departure for an in-depth discussion of what such maps can tell us about what is important in the fictional worlds and the stories that take place there. With particular focus on J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, Ekman shows how fantasy settings deserve serious attention from both readers and critics. Includes insightful readings of works by Steven Brust, Garth Nix, Robert Holdstock, Terry Pratchett, Charles de Lint, China Miéville, Patricia McKillip, Tim Powers, Lisa Goldstein, Steven R. Donaldson, Robert Jordan, and Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess.

I’m not sure I can overstate how much I’m looking forward to reading this. Once I do, I’ll tell you all about it.

Pre-order at Amazon: hardcover, paperback | publisher’s page

Apple Replaces Google Maps on iOS

Published on 11 June 201219 October 2017 by Jonathan Crowe

So last week Google held a press event outlining several upcoming features and innovations in Google Maps, including the ability to use maps offline on Android (i.e., without a network connection), some pretty impressive 3D imagery, and shrinking the Street View camera so that it’ll fit in a backpack. The event was widely seen as a way to grab some of the limelight prior to Apple’s announcement of its own built-in maps for iOS, which came today (more on which in a moment).

Continue reading “Apple Replaces Google Maps on iOS” →

Mapping Tornado Tracks

Published on 1 June 201219 October 2017 by Jonathan Crowe

Using more than 50 years of NOAA data, John Nelson of IDV Solutions has created a map of tornado tracks across the United States, categorized by their F-scales (he’s also broken them out by each F-scale). Via O’Reilly Radar.