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As an avid reader of YA Fantasy, I’ve always had a bit of a thing for beautiful fantasy maps. I’d flip from the middle of books to fantasy maps at the front of books, or I’d look up fantasy maps on an author’s website.

So today, I want to talk about some of those favorite YA fantasy maps and what I love about them.

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Here, we have the first of my favorite fantasy maps: a map of Tortall, a world created by Tamora Pierce, who was an influential writer for me growing up. There’s some nostalgia factored in making this my first fantasy map choice: it’s the first one that I can remember.

Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce

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I clearly remember being awed when I saw the map for Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse. The artist gave it such amazing depth and the gash in Ravka that is the Unsea is such a great depiction!

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

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I loved all of the illustrations through Sightwitch by Susan Dennard, but I especially love this map! I really enjoy how it isn’t flat like most fantasy maps I’m used to seeing.

Sightwitch by Susan Dennard

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The sprawling world Sarah J. Maas created in her Throne of Glass series lends itself to an epic map like this one! It really helps to get a grip on the world since her characters travel so far and wide.

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

And the last of the fantasy maps on this list is particularly special to me…



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The Map of Omna. The world of the Lady Pirates series. Yes, this is a map of one of my own worlds, so it’s particularly special to me. And OF COURSE, it’s one of my favorite fantasy maps!

The Map of Omna is a magical map that is particularly important to the plot of the Lady Pirates seres and I had a blast working with my designer to develop this interpretation of the world.

There’s so much I love about it from the pirate-y symbols, to the sea creatures to the fact that ONE OF MY BOOKS HAS A MAP, Y’ALL.

I hope you readers love it as much as I do.

Over Raging Tides by Jennifer Ellision

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