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Stefan Ekman, Here Be Dragons: Exploring Fantasy Maps and Settings (Wesleyan University Press, 2013, 296p, £22.00)
When we think about the traditional tropes and clichés of fantasy as a genre, one of the most common is the use of maps. It has become such an expected feature of the genre that Diana Wynne Jones begins her Tough Guide to Fantasyland (1996) with the words:
WHAT TO DO FIRST
1. Find the MAR It will be there. No Tour of Fantasyland is complete without one. It will be found in the front part of your brochure. [...]
Find the Map.
2. Examine the Map. [...]
In short, the Map is useless, but you are advised to keep consulting it, because it is the only one you will get. And, be warned. If you take this Tour, you are going to have to visit every single place on this Map, whether it is marked or not. This is a Rule.
In Here Be Dragons, Stefan Ekman interrogates the notion that fantasy maps are a frequent element in the genre, but more than this, he seeks to demonstrate how significant setting is to the development and interpretation of a fantasy text. Dissatisfaction at the scant amount of genre-focused critical studies on the subject of setting fuels Ekman's passion. His main interest lies in raising awareness about the possibilities for in-depth critical analysis not only of setting for its own sake, but also of the relationships between the land and its rulers; fantasy's capacity to establish, via a variety of borders and boundaries, different sets, levels or domains of reality, and the unique ways in which the genre juggles culture and nature (a topic to which he applies ecocriticism in order to observe its dynamics). The book is divided into four main sections: Maps, Borders and Boundaries, Nature and Culture, and Realms and Rulers, which are then subdivided into smaller sections that consist of individual practical studies of key texts. He uses each of these sections to demonstrate how a specific text or set of texts, his most commonly used being Tolkien's Middle-Earth legendarium, can be explored and analyzed in terms of the characteristics and qualities of its setting.
Ekman begins by challenging conventions and assumptions made regarding fantasy...