A review by olma
The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Had trouble setting this down. It reminded me of a mix of “Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore”
by Robin Sloan and “Series of Unfortunate Events.” 
That being said, I felt like the end was somewhat rushed and under-explained. Nell said she wouldn’t pick the map over her family, but she technically did and for some reason took months to actually reach out and let Felix know she was okay. Also, I felt like the explanation of the map wasn’t satisfactory. If all you had to do was make a map to create anything you wanted, why was it so important to put it into the Haberson map? He could have just drawn a map by hand theoretically and changed anything. I get that the danger was that he could control the world, but since other trap rooms /phantom settlements existed, there’s no reason Tam’s specific map needed to be uploaded (other than Wally’s obsession with her). I just didn’t feel like Tam staying away for 30 years actually needed to happen based on what actually happened and could have happened. Why protect that town from Wally when there could have been hundreds more? They literally could have tracked down any map with a phantom settlement.
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