Referring to the fictional planet in the Hyperion Cantos tetralogy by Dan Simmons. The geography (planetography?) of Hyperion is an important aspect of the story, with frequent references to continents, archipelagos, mountain chains, deserts, rivers, jungles, valleys. A lot of the plot is concerned with the spatial relationships between various geographical features. At many points in the novels I’ve wished to look at a map to see how everything is placed in relation to everything else. I used Google image search but found nothing.
I was expecting some fanboy or fangirl had already mapped Hyperion. The Cantos are one of the most prominent award-winning works of SF in recent years. I assumed it would have an enthusiastic fan base of the sort that develops background reference sources like maps. Ursula LeGuin included maps of both planets in The Dispossessed, in which geography plays some role, but not as centrally as in the Hyperion Cantos.
The references to geography are mostly brief and scattered throughout the books, so that to bring together all the information becomes one of those obsessive tasks that fans excel at. I’m not a “fan,” I just like to read. I just think the Hyperion novels, more than most novels, are seriously crying out for a little mapping.
I’m currently in the middle of the third novel (Endymion). All along I’ve kept seeing references to the three continents that are named after the animals their outlines resemble. I’ve been visualizing Equus in the northern hemisphere to the west, Aquila in the southern hemisphere, and Ursus somewhere to the east of the other two. The Nine Tails archipelago in the sea somewhere between southern Equus and northern Aquila. The horse shape of Equus has its head in the northeast, facing east, and the Valley of the Time Tombs is just north of the Bridle Range, so it’s somewhere (I’m imagining) between the horse’s neck and where its ear would go. Keats is on the east coast of Equus, farther south, maybe on the horse’s chest. As for locations on Aquila, as with Equus the bird’s anatomy is used to describe where things are, except I haven’t been able to figure out how the bird is arranged.
For that matter, the Valley of the Time Tombs needs a map of its own, because so much of the action in the novels is focused there, and the shape of the valley and the spatial layout of all the buildings in it are given lots of emphasis. Descriptions of this are fairly detailed and repeated in each book.
Thanks… I had thought of that and looked there… but you know how before asking a question at SDMB you’re supposed to search to find out whether the question has already been asked? That forum has no search function. Simmons is pretty good at dreaming up future technology and describing it… but installing and operating real technology is another matter altogether…
Guess I’ll try there and brace myself for the likely chorus of “Where’ve you been? Noob, we covered this already lots of times!”
Edit-- They’re not accepting new user registrations. Great, no search, no join, no dice.
