These maps give a reader their first taste of what the tone of the story might be like.
What do the names sound like?
What variety of languages and naming conventions exist in a fantastical world?
Some fantasy maps are present mostly for the readers convenience.
They help the prospective reader navigate a journey that may switch back and forth through places with complicated names.
Other fantasy books customize their maps to their characters.
(Depending on which edition youre looking at, the effect is enhanced or reduced.)
This is Thorins map, modified after the dwarves mountain was invaded by the dragon.
(In the real world, the map was created byTim Paul.)
So who is Csorwe, and what exactly is her story?
Shes offered an escape from its thrall by Belthandros Sethennai, the known worlds foremost wizard.
Csorwe herself is straightforward and tough.
She knows how to take and give damage, and isnt interested in finery or study.
This isnt the kind of fantasy where these are innate orcish traits.
Another main orc character is a wizard librarian.
No, these are Csorwe traits, and theyre evident on the books map.
Then there are the thumbtacks-and-string lines, most of them connecting round portals.
These caught my eye immediately because they set the map apart in an important way: it isnt contiguous.
This immediately makes the reader wonder about the world-building.
What are these portals?
How easy or difficult is it to get through them?
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This is where the genre-bending comes in.
The portals are used in various ways throughout the story, both as everyday conveyance and as magical weapons.
Because of them, the physical distances between places dont really matter.
What matters is whether someone has made a portal between two cities.
Between the portals is the Maze, the space-between-spaces where worlds decay or collide.
The books geography isnt complicated; the story moves pretty linearly from one world to another.
The way Csorwe gradually comes to understand more about the portals helps carry the reader along.
And it is weird, with cities decaying into what look like weird works of art.
The thumbtacks add a little more to really finish the effect.
The tattered worlds ofThe Unspoken Namedont need to be united, per se.
Theyre functioning well enough with the portal system.
By inviting questions the novel answers,The Unspoken Names map is a remarkable portal into the book.
The Unspoken Name isnow available to purchase.
What if you knew how and when you will die?
But on the day of her foretold death, a powerful mage offers her a new fate.
Leave with him, and live.
Topple an empire, and help him reclaim his seat of power.
But Csorwe will soon learngods remember, and if you live long enough, all debts come due.
