The Atlas of the Land: A Complete Guide to the Strange and Magical Land of Stephen R. Donaldson's Chronicles of Thomas Covenant

Thomas Covenant

by Karen Wynn Fonstad

Provides maps of the world featured in Stephen R. Donaldson's Thomas Covenant series, traces journeys, and provides diagrams of farms, towns, ships, and palaces

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Reference, Art

201 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Karen Wynn Fonstad, née Wynn (April 18, 1945 - March 11, 2005) was the author of several atlases of fictional worlds.

Born Karen Lea Wynn in Oklahoma City to parents James and Estis Wynn, she graduated from Norman High School in Norman, Oklahoma, and then earned a B.S. degree in Physical Therapy and an M.A. in Geography, specializing in cartography, from the University of Oklahoma.

While attending the University of Oklahoma she met Todd A. Fonstad. They married on March 21, 1970 and produced two children: Dr. Mark A. Fonstad and Kristina Stingle.

Before her "retirement" to raising children and writing companion atlases, Fonstad was Director of Cartographic Services at the University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh. Her formal acknowledgments for ''The Atlas of Pern'' (1984) include "my husband, Todd, associate professor geography" and the UW Oshkosh Department of Geography.

Karen Wynn Fonstad died, aged 59, from complications from breast cancer.

Provided by Wikipedia

Reviews

[Dean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, it has been a very long time since I have sat down in a day and finished a big hardcover book.
This was such a great enrichment for those of us who love the Ur’Lord’s world. This is not a spoiler, but just to let you know, it does not cover the third series, books 7-10. The book was published in 1985. Right now, I am reading book 8 and I have found this fantasy atlas to be a terrific support. The atlas does a fantastic job of touching on events without running them. It is crafted to enrich without spoiling. Great tool for anyone who loves the series!!

[Little Timmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ever wonder what the places and things of Donaldson's Thomas Convent books looked like, well here ya go. An excellent reference book. Very recommended

[Joe Kessler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This reference book is a true labor of love for the first six volumes in Stephen R. Donaldson's Chronicles of Thomas Covenant fantasy series. (It was published in 1985, well before the final quartet arrived. And it's been out of print ever since; I was lucky enough to finally find a cheap secondhand copy myself.) For 200 pages, author Karen Wynn Fonstad provides gorgeously-illustrated maps and other diagrams to lay out a complete geography of the setting, going well beyond the official frontispiece in the novels. To construct this corpus, she's drawn from the texts themselves, interviews with their writer, and her own body of geographical knowledge. And it's an authorized production too; he mentions in a foreword "the dozens of hours of work I've done at her request, explaining my ideas, verifying hers, and checking the finished product." Simply put, this is the best, most accurate representation of how its creator imagined and intended for the Land to look.

I am not a very visual reader, so I've found it extremely helpful to have these layouts available to supplement the written descriptions in the stories. Fonstad's own captions aid as well, divorced from the immediacy of pressing plot concerns. Decades after initially encountering this fictional world, I only now feel I have a solid grasp of where some of its regions are in relation to others, or the exact paths that characters would have traveled across the landscape. I particularly enjoy the section at the end depicting a day-by-day chronology of those journeys, which is really great for tracking where everyone is at any given point over the diverse events and bifurcated narrative of The Illearth War.

I wouldn't recommend this title for novices to the franchise, since it's incredibly spoiler-heavy and arranged by location rather than time, so for example we see the town of Mithil Stonedown as described in both Covenant's original visit and the millennia-later Sunbane era. But it would be invaluable as a companion for a reread, or for fans who already know the books so well. I wish more of my favorite genre works could be awarded this sort of treatment, and I'm thrilled to have acquired this one for my shelves.

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[Mark Redman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Atlas of the Land (chronicles of Thomas Covenant). Now long out of print, I managed to track down a second-hand copy. Fully authorised by Stephen Donaldson.

If you’re a fan of the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, I refer specifically to the first and second chronicles. This book fully explores the Land. All the topography and the nature of the land from Covenants arrival to this complete journey at the end of the second chronicles. Each area is described in full with a brief summary of what happened and how this relates to each area. Fully visualising the journey, people, etc even down to how many days and leagues Covenant walked.

I could go on, but for me, this was just a spectacular in-depth experience that I’ve never come across before.

If you’re a Covenant fan and you can trace a second-hand copy, I urge you too.

PS. This Altas refers only to the first and second chronicles. It does not cover the final chronicles.

[Kristian Petersen · Rating 5 out of 5]

An extraordinarily composed set of maps and details of housing and living spaces set in the Land wherein the Chronicles [first, second and final] of Thomas Covenant; ur-Lord, unbeliever, White Gold Wielder, Illender, etc. She goes book by book through the first two chronicles, mapping out army movements, treks made by Covenant and his supporters and adversaries. I was ready to undertake an update then I was sacked outside my church and had this book, inter alia, stolen...I will restore it to my collection and there are other things on my mind in the revision

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fonstad worked in close collaboration with Stephen R. Donaldson to produce this atlas based on his Thomas Covenant books. You feel as though SRD knew much more about geology and how the world really LOOKS than, really, any other fantasy writer up to that point. I definitely would never know what a defile was otherwise.

[Erik · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great supplement to the Covenant Series; a real must have!

[Matthew Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

I felt like a small horde of puppies climbed over my reading chair and sniffed, nibbled, and climbed on me until I fell over giggling.

[Michael Perez · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're a fan of Covenant, you'll appreciate the atlas.

[Narelle McGuinness · Rating 5 out of 5]

such a great read