From the unadorned sketches at the beginning of each volume of The Lord of the Rings to the highly stylized Marauder’s Map in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, writers have a way of showing as well as telling their readers exactly where their characters are in a given time and place. It’s not always easy to paint the mental picture you want if the narrative is complex, or if the writer has built a world that is incomprehensible in scope. Thanks to the talent of illustrator Andrew DeGraff, you will soon have a new way to envision some of your favorite fictional places.

DeGraff’s background as an illustrator and passion for technical drawing and maps led him to the new book Plotted. In it, he will take you on an adventure worthy of Bilbo Baggins and mesmerize you with the detail and imagination put into his literary maps. Check out this video on the makings of his Robinson Crusoe map:

As you will see in the pictures in the gallery below, DeGraff approaches each story differently and crafts maps that truly tell stories. There’s no way the rabbits of Watership Down could be contained in one small map no matter how slender the pencils and paintbrushes he used. And the winding waterways of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn really just cement the grand adventure at the center of the story. Plotted also features maps from The Odyssey, Hamlet, Pride and Prejudice, Invisible Man, A Wrinkle in Time, A Christmas Carol and more, so all you literary fans need to put this on your shopping list and soon.

You can grab your own copy of Plotted on October 20, 2015 when it hits stores. Until then, feast your eyes on this gallery and get excited for all the worlds DeGraff will show you.

HT: Huffington Post