In the back of their books they add all these interesting little tidbits to draw readers even deeper into their imaginary worlds. Things like a glossary, which lists a brief biography of all their characters; detailed maps of their fantasy worlds and, at times, even a genealogy.
I love genealogies.
Books series' often go through a range of characters, sometimes over generations, so seeing them all presented on one chart is a great reminder of their relationship to each other as the stories progress.
I created one for my Dantonville Legacy series and it was included as part of the back matter in the first paperback edition of Book 1, BloodGifted, but it was harder to do in the digital version, and so it didn't go in.
But, here it is now and I've included an updated version with characters from the 2nd and 3rd books.
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I love maps and family trees that are added to stories, it helps to visualize places and the relationships and family ties between the characters.
ReplyDeleteI love maps and family trees, too. This is a great article, Tima. On occasion, when I have an elaborate back-story for a character, I will create a family tree for that character. But this is something I should do for every character, as well as working up a short biography and psychological profile for them, which is something a lot of actos do when preparing for a role.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea. I too love seeing maps and family trees in books!! Great post.
ReplyDeletegreat post for the people that likes families trees.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to see them in books, I particularly liked the maps in LOTR books and to see what Tolkien envisioned, but family trees it's not something I study. It's fun, but for me, that part doesn't make a book. There are pages and pages of linage at the end of each Game of Thrones books but unless you really have hard time keeping up with who's related to whom and through who, it's not something that I spent time reading. I'm still stuck on the third book. Not because I don't find them gripping, but because I don't think these books would benefit from my review, they are doing excellent with out me. There are small and unknown authors that are crying for reviews, and could use all the help they could get. So I'll read and review them way before I review any big name author out there.
ReplyDeleteGenealogies are really fun. I didn't include one of those in my book simply because it would have revealed a HUGE spoiler that I wanted to keep secret. However, like Tolkien, I did include a map and a glossary on how to pronounce certain words. :-)
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