Fantasy Maps and Ebook Issues.

Map from Power and Majesty

I think we can blame Tolkien and his rather anal approach to creating secondary worlds for this one.  It's obligatory for a Fantasy novel to contain maps, nice hand drawn ones if possible, not something that's been sketched out on an auto-cad. I think it adds to the suspense of disbelief the authenticity of the secondary world that's been created.  


Which brings me to one of the drawbacks I have discovered with eBooks (and I am talking about epub versions).  I recently bought Tansy Raynor Roberts Power and Majesty which contains three nice hand drawn maps by her mother Jilli Roberts.  Unfortunately they don't scale up the eReader,so much of the detail is hard to pickout.


Thankfully larger versions can be found on the Creature Court Website.  I wonder then with eBooks on the rise we might see the disappearance of these particular artifacts.

Your thoughts? Do you like maps in your Fantasy books? Are they necessary?






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