This map is one of the coolest things I've seen lately, and would make the perfect gift for the book lover in your life—especially a Cormac McCarthy reader. I started reading Blood Meridian recently—at the suggestion of my son, who's a big fan—and I'm finding myself getting a bit lost. This map, "The Trail of Blood Meridian," looks like the perfect accompaniment to the book, as it traces the book's entire journey, chapter by chapter, highlighting all of the events that happens along the way—it even includes illustrations and quotes. It's really quite amazing!
The map website's—where you can pre-order it for $26.00—provides this description:
Here, at last, after many a calamitous journey through the wastelands of the evening West, is a complete hand-drawn map of Blood Meridian. From chapter 1 to chapter 23; an exact-as-humanly-possible trail route of the kid and the Glanton Gang's expeditions are depicted with iconic images, vignettes, and quotes from the book, along with chapter number legends to help guide you and a fully colorized topography of the American Southwest + Mexican frontier. From the backwoods of Tennessee to the badlands of Chihuahua to the sunken nightlands of northwest Texas — through forests, deserts, mountains, and plains — follow the trail and re-experience the epic grandeur, cruelty, and beauty of Blood Meridian like never before.
The creator of the map, who goes by "ShireBeware" on Reddit, recently posted about it on r/cormacmccarthy, along with some images of various sections of the map. The gorgeous artwork has received tons of praise in the subreddit, including:
- Holy smokes, man. Bravo!
- Wow finally some fan art that isn't cringey creepypasta garbage. Good job man!!!!
- Heckin neat.
- Well done, thank you for sharing your passion in this way. I look forward to having this on hand.
- That's sick, great work! I may well order one of these
- AWESOME!
- Hey, I love it. Love seeing your bookshelf as well. You are enormously creative and have a bright future in whatever you might try.
I agree with this praise–the map is absolutely fantastic! If you want to learn more about the map or order one, check out the Epic Trail Book Maps website here. And here's a great electronic version of the map. I'm going to get one as a holiday gift for a certain someone (shhh, don't tell him!).
Previously: Where Midian is
