The Streets of Ankh-Morpork

The first of the "Discworld Mapp" series, despite the author's original long-held opinion that a fantasy world could not and should not be mapped. "The Streets of Ankh-Morpork" features an atlas of the fictional city of Ankh-Morpork, a rich, powerful, and sprawling city on the Discworld, a fantasy series by British author Terry Pratchett.

Stephen Briggs, amateur theatrical producer and, later, one of the most meticulous among the "Discworld" fans, compiled references from the "Discworld" novels, devised the map and with test readers' help revised it many times. Author Terry Pratchett also checked the many revisions of the map, and was very surprised at how well the city fit together. In the accompanying booklet he said that he thought Ankh-Morpork was unmappable, as he'd made it up as he went along, but that he then realised that real cities are "also" made up as people go along. Pratchett later revised his above opinion, saying that a fantasy world should not be mapped until it has become established in the creator's mind. He had expected a map to restrict future ideas, but found instead that it inspired them.

The final, artwork-grade map was drawn by Stephen Player, who also drew the artwork for a later publication, "The Discworld Mapp". "The Streets of Ankh-Morpork", an aerial-view map of the city of Ankh-Morpork, looks vaguely like a brown and green cut onion with a river bisecting it. If the map is rotated 90° W and flipped vertically, the city bears a striking resemblance to a major north-western European metropolis. An enclosed booklet includes Pratchett's and Briggs's words on how they devised this map, and a 6-page map legend listing the many famous and picturesque establishments in Ankh-Morpork.

External links

* [http://wiki.lspace.org/ Discworld & Pratchett Wiki]