Maps of fictional places

I like maps as it is – of real places – but maps of lands found in works of fiction are all the more fascinating. The maps in the Song of Ice and Fire books certainly help to visualise where the characters are – as they’re always spread far and wide across Westeros. I guess that’s something the makers of the TV show (that’s Game of Thrones, if you didn’t know) thought important too as they based the whole title sequence around the map!

A couple of days ago I finished reading Fool’s Fate by Robin Hobb, the final book of a fantasy trilogy which in itself is a follow on from another trilogy – basically what I’m saying is, really it was the sixth book in a series. The books are set in lands called the Six Duchies, I found a map then looked up some other fictional realms…

The Six Duchies from the Farseer series

Westeros (A Song of Ice and Fire) has to be split into north and south it’s so big.

Finally, Middle Earth of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.

I actually own a book of Middle Earth maps. It contains hundreds of places I’ve never even heard of, probably due to not having read The Silmarillion. Maybe I will read it one day…

Nice little Hound

Stupidly excited for the 1st of April and the return of Game of Thrones. A Clash of Kings (the second book) is possibly my favourite in the series and is what season two of the show is based on. Sandor Clegane, otherwise known as The Hound, is my favourite not-so-major character.

This amazing illustration is courtesy of this deviantart artist person. Although I had to track the artist down through Tumblr. I hate Tumblr for its endless re-blogging without giving the original author/artist credit. Bah.

Heartbreaking

Or heart-wrenching, as I put on Twitter. This is tragically beautiful.

A Hound and a Little Bird by Tribemun on deviantArt.
I love the (vaguely) graphic novel style.

Illustrating a part of the battle of Blackwater scene from A Clash of Kings, when Sandor offers (somewhat violently [but with love in his heart, honest]) to take Sansa away from King's Landing. You should have gone with him Sansa!

Sandor is seriously my favourite character in A Song of Ice and Fire, and he's not even a main character. I can't wait for season two of the tv show to see this scene, and others. Good book that second one.

Off With Their Heads!

I like history and I like learning. But I don't know much, so I bought a(nother) book. It helps when a history book is nicely designed and simplified into the "best bits of British history - with all the boring bits left out."

There are cute little character illustrations for various periods of history,
such as Henry VIII for the Tudors. I rather like the Viking chap (Early Middle Ages).

So I'm retiring to bed to read me some history. I've been hooked on George R.R. Martin's Clash of Kings for the last four days, but I finished the 900 page beast of a book last night. Brilliant, but I'm having a days break before I tackle the next book!

Game of Thrones

Over the past two days (plus Friday last week) I watched pretty much the full first season of Game of Thrones. I'd previously watched the first episode in April, before I went back to uni. Luckily my parents recorded the whole series for me, as it's shown on Sky Atlantic in the UK, and I've been able to watch them all back to back.

The title sequence is pretty darn awesome.

In fact, the whole series was awesome. I am was/am hooked. As a lover of the medieval fantasy genre anyway (need to read/watch Lord of the Rings [I mean again, not for the first time]), it was perfect.

EDIT: Check out this amazingly detailed map of the 7 Kingdoms.