 Hello, hello, everyone. My name is Laura. This is my channel Laura's Little Library and welcome to today's video Which is a very special video because today I will be joined by Hello My husband So this is Brennan. He has appeared on a video once or twice before But today we are gonna be doing something that I think is really cool And I'm really excited to hear him talk about so Brennan is a map maker. He is a cartographer Yeah So I'm studying geography in school right now as one of my majors and Part of that major requires that we work with GIS geographic information systems. So we do a lot of Cartography with that because a good map needs both Good data and good artistic representation. So That sounds very sciencey So basically what I'm going to be having Brennan do with this well-rounded knowledge that he has learned across the three and a half years He has completed so far a study is he's going to be judging fantasy world maps in books Fantasy books. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I read them one of my favorite things as a kid was looking at uh the maps in books and then like constantly referencing it going back and forth when they would Uh make mention of like a city or something like that. Like, uh, I always loved Narnia's maps. Um, And oh air guns Oh, may we're to even have air guns map was like big and like it also made me want to add it to the list Well, it was so big because like you could see places that they Like in the first book you didn't get to see like you you're like, oh, when is this going to come into play? So it was almost like a little trailer a little sneak peek For what was coming next. All right. Well other than air gun I have six books here that i'm going to have Brennan judge and the first one we're going to be starting with is Six of crows by libra nougat the grisha verse map So this is the map that I will have Brennan Be judging if you don't own a copy or your copy for some reason doesn't have a map All right, so I am somewhat familiar with This because of the show that we watched together shadow and bone the tv show, of course So one thing I'm already noticing is one, uh, the balance is a little Sparse like the land areas don't have a lot of features to them So all of the maps that we're going to be looking today are a very specific type of map They're called reference maps. They don't have any sort of data that they're analyzing or looking at They're just a reference so that you can look at Um, but there are some things here. So like kester hurt here um That should be haloed or positioned in a better way Because you can see how it overlaps with the landmass and it gets a little confusing And difficult to read besides that Uh, it's pretty decent. I I think the the one other thing that's not doing it a great amount of service is you have these beautiful Lovely detailed borders around it But then you have these maps that are very plain and empty So when you have figure ground problems like that, your eyes are more drawn to the borders than to the map itself um Yeah, I've I've seen better maps Well, of course like what you were saying with the whole grayscale thing too is that this book has Spray black edges and so that just even gives it almost another border because everything around it is so dark Um, but all right. Go start. Go start. Do I give it like a A rating or anything if you want you want to rate this map Yeah, I'll do it out of the cardinal direction. So I'll give it a Uh I'll give it a two out of the four cardinal directions Uh, north and east the bad ones No, I'm just So the next book that we have is car of all by Stephanie Gerber So I read this trilogy and I loved it And there is currently a whole other Series that is coming out with it now. This is a very different map because it's of a town Hmm, okay So one thing I'm looking here at is so this Um, an important thing about map making I think is that we've come to learn um maps as very western and we've come to See maps as very western and a very specific style of map being the only one true map And the only one true way of mapping and mapping has a very long History of colonialism and used for resource extraction If you if europeans went to a place They used maps to extract wealth out of that place And so what we as geographers are trying to do more now is Look at new and different ways of mapping And so this this I think Does a pretty good job of that. This is almost more like a mental map or a Community map these those are types of maps where I ask you hey, can you just draw me a map? Like you're not a cartographer or anything But just draw me a map and that shows While it isn't exact like to scale or anything like that what that shows me Is what's important to you and so from this there's a lot of what's important to the book Exactly. So like with this book, there's a lot of features here that are unmarked Um, a lot of scales that are a little like all over a place It's kind of a whimsical book. It's very whimsical so the map has to match But I can tell What the character or what this book Believes to and be important because we have one two three four five six Six things are labeled and that's it and and I do enjoy the blocky kind of style and the angle that It's going for um all in all. I I like it. It's a good good map. I give a, um I'd give it a Three and a half out of four I like it. It's it's simple. It's simple, but it does what it needs to do All right. All right. I know the next map. I'm excited for it Sabriel Yes, so the next one that we are going to do is sabria, which is a Book in a trilogy that also has other books in the world by garth nix that we both love So he is much more familiar with this book. This one's the first book. Yeah. Yeah, this is the first one The map is actually only on one page It's literally just this it's It's a little small But what I think this map does well is for one it provides scale, which is really neat It gives you a cardinal directions, which is always nice It is it does make me think of england with the name Um and particularly the font that they used and I think that's kind of australian authors. Yeah. Yeah I mean, it's just a solid good reference map. Like they have Um all of the features that they used like the lines for roads That's pretty typical and then um, like it's getting conveying a lot of information um, like uh and labeling things really well like you don't see a lot of Conflict with the labels and the features um, one thing I'll know is what they do he does real well is um Things that are on the coast um He he labels those what you should do when you have a city on the coast You always always Put the name of that city in the ocean to show that that's on the coast if you put it In the um, if you put it On land then you know that okay. It looks like it's on the coast, but it's not it's not on the coast um, so he's done that with uh, calibre nesto But that one's a bit confusing because I don't know if hello show hello and nesto are To what they're referring to but um Um Yeah, yeah all in all good map I'm I might be a little biased because I really love this book Um, just based on the map just based on the map. Uh, it's pretty good Uh, it would be kind of cool It would be kind of cool if there was an inset map So if this was a real life map, I would put an inset map right here Uh, that's a locator map. So like I know where in the world this is um, so you do this for So I do a lot of maps of africa and unfortunately a lot of people don't know where like barundi is or jibouti is So I usually have to put a locator map in like the corner And this would be kind of cool to see where in the fictional world this is Um, but it makes sense for his story because there's not they don't ever leave and there's no real mention of The outside world belong besides the old kingdom and uh, maybe it's unexplored and that's why we don't get that Well, the third book makes mention of those, uh, the refugees from the mainland it's it's it's hinting at Uh alternate universe in the European context. Yeah, so what is your cardinal direction rating? I'd give it I 3.75 I don't give out fours typically. I I always think there's my any clothes All right. What's the next one next one? Spin the dawn by elizabeth wim. So I love this duology when I read it It's a move on plus, um, this is the one where she project runway. Yeah project runway, but like she's really good at sewing Yeah, and she has magic to help her So it is a double paged map Whole island and It's a little difficult with the spine. Yeah, the spine does make it a little tricky, but let's see Okay So one thing That they've done well Is the difference between sans serif and serif So, um, that's a font thing. Um So serif When you have serif on your fonts that implies that it's a natural phenomenon You're labeling something that's natural So we have the forgotten aisles of lapisour or the tajensi. That's a natural thing But then with the the winter palace At the it's a sans serif. So that's a good touch. Um I like that Things are not it's not nadir. So it's not directly above. It's kind of off kilter um and A lot of labels you can see that what they've done Um, is they've done something called a halo for all the, um labels that are in, um On the landmass because they don't want it, um kind of Getting jumbled together with things it's easier to see them because they stand out exactly. So halo you Put like a little bit of color usually white around your letters. Um, and that That prevents it from, um The letters from being lost in like the trees and like the doha forest It would have gotten lost. Um Now I will say typically in map making you don't want to halo everything um, that's kind of a uh An easy out that most math makers look at that and go You could have done better. Um, so do they halo everything? They halo everything that's in the um landmass Which is kind of understandable because of the grayscale texture that they used used and they do have a lot of labels. Um They do oh what I like too is With the The rivers and the mountains They actually give the labels a little bit of curvature to it. Um Which implies a uh a relationship Uh to like the nap the the way it Actually is and stuff like that whereas like cities. It's all straight. Um, yeah Yeah, I like it. I like it. It's pretty solid some nice creative licenses and artistic representation You can tell a lot about the world like the moon crying into a pool and um Uh and this desert has the sun and stuff like that. So there's there's some nice little touches here And anyone who has read the book just so you know, brennan has not read majority of these books So the fact that you point out some of the most important elements of the book That's good map making she has to get the tears in the moon. That's good map making catch the rays of the sun That's good map making like blood of the stars. So all right, three three point seven five The next up is a book Called the gilded ones by namina forna. So I just read the second book in this trilogy and the third one Uh will come out hopefully sometime next year inshallah inshallah so So this is the map of otara All right, let me get a good look at this So it's again You have a little bit of a problem with the the gray scale gray scale is hard to pull off and i'm I have a lot of respect to Uh these these books who have to use gray scale because of uh budget and stuff like that Are you kidding me? There's no way that's how they're printing So if they've got to do it gray scale But you can kind of see a problem with gray scale where you have a slightly darker gray for the ocean And then you have um like a lighter gray for the land and it's it can be trickier to Focus on the land what I do like about um what they try to do to increase that um Visibility and increase the focus is they actually um create shadows along the coast And um do an outlining a thicker outlining of the coast That helps a lot And I I like that the With the unloan glands, it's very dark. So your eyes are naturally drawn to it The cardinal direction is good. I might have put the um title otara Like over here and shifted things down a bit because you're you're this is actually the last place your eye Naturally goes to your eyes. There's an optical center. It's not in the very center It's slightly above the center and then your eyes drift this way. Um, so This is in the last place you look Just naturally. So I would have probably maybe put it here and then you could have seen it quicker I will say the that the castles look like they their clip art that they kind of just put on um I think they might they don't look very well integrated into The map. I think that's good. The mountains are good. Um, yeah Cardinal directions I I give a a three the the you gotta say the cardinal direction. Uh, I'll give it a uh A west a south and an east Because they didn't put their label in the north their title All right, so we have one more book here for you. So that's for last standalone. I didn't I didn't This is a standalone sapphic witchy book I was actually kind of surprised that there was a map in this book to be honest um, but this is The map so it's sweet and better magic by adrian tully I should say that this one has a lot going on. Give me give me just a second to digest this I might have not done the the road is like textured so that it's like just Uh, grayer than everything else um I might have changed that to just some sort of line But I get I get why they did that because it doesn't look like they're they have any hard lines anywhere Besides the coast and the textures for the sea they they chose a good font, um for Oh, that's interesting. Okay, so I've not read this book What I'm getting from this is you have your cities And your like man-made stuff Then you have these little stars that are a different font and um, they're much more witchy so Just going on that. I think these are like magic like wellsprings or something um, some sort something important there I like the trees the trees are a good good type Um, yeah for the trees. Yeah for a trees Yeah, and then classic little Like flaggy things um, I it's very old school european style um Which works for it. I mean it's a it's a witchy book. Yes. Yes. Yes. So it fits It's a western witchy book. Mm-hmm. Yeah I kind of wished with the gilded ones they had done a little bit The gilded sorry not to go back to the gilded ones, but the gilded ones is an african story. Yeah Not particular not particular. Never mind All right, I think there are some west african influences in this story Yeah, and I just wish I had seen that a little bit more in the maps the map like Particularly the castles the castles like I believe the miniforna is Western african and while this book isn't explicitly West african mythology or anything like that there is definitely an element a match. It's an otara Okay, so it's an imaginary place Uh-huh But there are elements of it that are similar to elements. I've read in other books that pull from uh african mythology west specifically nigerian mythology Um, so there are similar elements, but it's not yeah, but it's not enough to classify it as an african story an african story I think our main character is from she's from the south but her family is from the north or something like that So she is darker skinned. Yeah So she is still seen as an outsider as many africans are seen as outsiders in the united states of america A lot of the castles like some of these castles just look Very european like they have the ramparts and the flags and and that's why I said they look like they're kind of clip art because they're just look like they're popped on there and and Some of them even even the angle looks different at which they're placed. Yeah the angle that we have of the Yeah, and and there are like Like african things that you could use there or One or two of them look like a little bit like I'm sorry. I was wrong. She comes from the north, but her mother was from the south Some of them do kind of look like slave castles like almena castle Well, the women are kind of more so it's a very like War between genders type book Interesting and only just in the second book have we started to get into like queer gender and things like that And even still it's very like briefly mentioned Oh, that's interesting because so fun fun fact about Nigerian mythology and stuff like that and also Nigerian ideas of sexuality So the spirits don't have a gender. They're gender fluid and stuff like that um And for a long time like hausa did not have a word specific word for woman or man um, a woman was some someone who walked with a sway And man was uh in in hausa was someone who walked straight and stuff like that. So they're Nigerian mythology and Nigerian Understandings of gender is very gender fluid and stuff until colonialism and now Nigerian Culture and Is very very conservative sounds like we'll have to do another video We previously did a video Featuring african literature, but that was more so about authors and books and things like that But Yeah, I mean, maybe I'll make you read an african mythology fantasy And it'd be really interesting to hear your thoughts. Um, so for those of you who didn't see that video We do give context for this in that video. I'll have it linked like up above and down below But brendan was actually born in just nigeria and he grew up in nigeria niger gana So his background actually is in west africa, which is why that is what he means towards like when you said you make african maps you were making maps of your home And when you were excited about the possibility of african or west african mythology So that is why Yeah, I feel bad because we kind of skipped over Yeah, sweet and bitter magic I think This is a pretty decent map Frontal directions. Mm-hmm. I I'd give it Three and a half I think wow you raise all these very highly Actually three. It's a little busy for my taste. It's just a little busy. Um, but it's it's a good map I don't think any of these are bad maps. Yeah, do you think that actual cartographers made these maps or do you like Or were they just authors and publishers who Somehow got it all right I think you can I think they're authors and publishers because I can still see Like some things where it's like Yeah, I wouldn't do that like the all the halos and stuff like that where a They do it because it's intuitive not because I've studied maps to know to do it or do it properly They're like, oh, we can't see the letters good I'll just halo it off and it's like that like ita for gis and that is the First solution that my students come up with is we'll just halo it all And uh, you're like The last thing that I want to ask you is what is something that you would like to see in a bookish map or want them to do better in bookish maps all right, so I think Overall like the maps Are in a good spot. They do what they need to do Well, I think I would like more of Is maps throughout the book Because what is really disruptive is when you're reading a book and they mention like Terrera and you're like, where the where the can I swear on your back? Or your no where the heck Is terrera and then you have to Okay, fine. Oh, it's there and they're there. Oh, that's a long journey and it's very disruptive I think to the actual reading process to have to go back and check look through the map It pulls you out of the um the experience, but if you have maps Scattered throughout like kind of like them checking looking at their map themselves the characters looking at the maps themselves I think that would be A lot more helpful. Oh, that would be cool if we had it whenever the characters checked or whenever a new place was mentioned Sure Because you it doesn't make too much sense if it's just randomly scattered throughout that could almost also be seen as disruptive If you don't need it But if a new place was mentioned or they are traveling to a new area You could have almost like the main map at the beginning of the book And then if they're traveling north later on in the book, you can have Just the northern map almost like a different like zoomed in map more specifically where they're trying to go That way you don't get it too busy of a map in the beginning, but you're also getting the detail that you would love I could I could see like if it's a journey sort of Adventure or something like that you could maybe have maps like Uh, not every chapter that would get a little disruptive But like every like every couple of chapters every couple of chapters like where they are And stuff like that. That would that would actually be yeah Kind of fun or even like as like chapter headers. So are not headers, but you know how when it says like chapter That's what I'm thinking not take up an entire page, but like right below it. Yeah Yeah, that was exactly what I was thinking then A completely unrealistic But this would be cool Um is so like I said, I do gis. Um, so we do a lot of data And data analysis and it can be really interesting really useful To map out problems map out demographics and stuff like that So all the books that we've looked at today all their maps were reference maps But there are there are a thousand different types of maps It'd be really cool if we had like a book of just fantasy maps gis maps So like harry potter and there's a map of where all the wizards are and uh, or like, uh, the Functionings of the, uh Wizard government and stuff like that. Yeah, like what if what if the wizard government had an animal or a a desicentennial census like we do and they and then you have all that data like JK Rowling should it shouldn't be like Trashing trans people. She should be like doing like Really getting nitty gritty and uh, oh my goodness. Yeah, I don't think any authors are actually going to go for that though Because that's too much. That is too much, but there's someone out there. There's a big big nerd out there That can make me census data of all the fantasy books out there And then I'll make the maps from those we'll partner up All right. Well, thank you very much for doing this video with me. I have a lot of fun I hope you had a lot of fun as well. I did Like I said, uh, brennan has come on to this channel before to do And that might come again and he might come again And if you have any ideas of what you would want him to talk about with books Uh, just based off of the little snippets of his background that we've given you a comment them down below Give this video a thumbs up if you liked it. Otherwise feel free to subscribe to the channel Everything on here is bookish content and I post twice a week on sundays and wednesdays And I also have bookish social media linked down below that you can follow me. See what I am reading get updates on us All the fun things so until we see you all in our next video We wish you happy reading happy reading