This book is arguably one of the best forgotten realms supplements ever published. It details all of the major areas and locales that you are likely to encounter. In short, you MUST get this book

The last time I re-read LORD OF THE RINGS I kept this book beside me. Every time Frodo's or Aragorn's journey changed I referred to the maps in Fonstad's book. I understood Tolkien's geography so much better that way. And I got a better understanding of distances and travel time (how far *is* Isengard from Rohan??). The maps are detailed, yet easy to read. Fonstad's text is enlightening as well. Not only are geographical maps included, but also architectural maps: Bag End, Rivendell, and more! For the Tolkien aficionado, Fonstad has mapped the Silmarillion and for the Tolkien neophyte she's included maps that accompany The Hobbit. A timeline of RINGS is included as well - very helpful since Tolkien, unlike Peter Jackson's movie, does not "intercut" between Frodo and Aragorn's stories, but instead spends many chapters with each.

Why is this book better than the maps that Tolkien drew himself for the books? Because Fonstad traces the complete journey in several maps that show topography and routes taken.

I highly recommend trying to read Tolkien's books with Fonstad's maps close by for reference.

The Atlas of Middle-Earth is an excellent work of geographic reasoning in the great tradition of Eratostenes. The attention to detail, the realism in the drawings, and the breadth of topics in this book are difficult to measure. I am a professional geographer, and I understand how labor-intensive the completion of this book must have been. Literally thousands of decisions made by Mrs. Fonstad had to fit with Tolkien's descriptions and intentions. That Tolkien's descriptions can stand up to such scrutiny of accuracy and internal consistency is a testament to Tolkien's magic (many authors' designed worlds do not).

I also wish to dispell a misconception by an earlier reviewer. The review by Linards Ticmanis from Germany is in error about Mrs. Fonstad's portrayal of the world maps. He suggested that her maps show a world "only half as large as the real earth" and that Tolkien has designed Arda to be Earth (although Tolkien denied that Middle-Earth was Europe in The Lost Road, p. 25). However, the radius of the planet can be calculated from her maps by placing an orthographic projection diagram with lines of latitude and longitude on top of her maps (her world maps are orthographic projections). When a degree of longitude or latitude is compared to its ground distance (supplied by reading Tolkien), it is quite easy to calculate the radius of the planet, approximately 4200 miles (6770 km). This compares to 3963 miles (6378 km) radius for the earth. These two measurements are very similar, and the idea that Mrs. Fonstad's maps show a world that is "only half as large as the real earth" is in error. In any case, the Atlas of Middle-Earth is about as "Tolkien Purist" as you can get; and this adds to its value immensely.

Although it's been a few years since I read this book, I've become a great fan of Ms. Fonstad's work. Anyone interested in either fantasy or maps of the worlds they inhabit should check out any title by this author. Ms Fonstad has done her homework, not only in the text of this story but in the layout of the land. This book (and others like it by this author) are highly recommended for those whose fantasy tastes are not fulfilled by the mere description of the land. Ms Fonstad goes into great detail and painstakingly recreates the paths of Frodo and the Fellowship, and also includes detailed maps of the Shire and Battle maps from the First and Second Ages and the battles of Sauron.

Whether you're just a casual reader of a die-hard fan, the Atlas of Pern is a handy companion to Anne McCaffery's popular series. It's nice to be able to flip open a book and see an illustration of the world, trace the routes from one Hold to the next and back again. It adds a depth to the work.

It's also handy for those of us who do roleplaying on the Pern-based worlds; there are details within its pages not seen elsewhere. In my years of playing apprentices, holders, and dragonriders, I have often called on it for more information. I highly recommend it and the DragonLover's Guide to Pern to all Pern fans.

If you participate in Pern fandom, this book is very valuable. It includes scaled drawings of many places on Pern, from the original colonists' time through "The White Dragon". Land use, climate, population, and spatial maps are also included. The only frustrating thing is that this is not a complete work - if the place hasn't been mentioned and described in detail in the Harper Hall trilogy, "Moreta" , or the original trilogy, then it's not mapped in this book. Igen Weyr, Telgar Weyr, High Reaches Hold, and Benden Hold are missing, to name a few. But Fonstadt has produced an excellent reference work.

if you like Pern and want to know mor about the geography and locations of some of you favorite pernese vaction spots i recomedd this

While any Thomas Covenant fan will undoubtedly enjoy this book, it is the least detailed of Fonstad's Atlases. No color and some of the pages are sparse on illustration. This is the Fonstad's first atlas (others being atlases of Pern, Middle-Earth and the Dragonlance world), and it shows in this atlas.

On the other hand, it does do a great job on visualizing Donaldson's world, reguardless of comparison to the other atlases.

Good book, but the other atlases are much better.

while impressed with the ammount of detail that fonstad put into the middle-earth and dragonlance atlas', the atlas of the land seems almost bland in comparison (most likely because this was fonstad's first book). most of the pages have barely anything on them, and the maps confuse the time periods from both trilogies. the areas are listed by region, seemingly jumping around from place to place and time period to time period seemingly at random, rather than chronilogically from both the covenant books. even worse, there are hardly any cross-sections, which fonstad excelled at with the dragonlance atlas. what a pity. if you're a die-hard covenant fan, this may be worth an absolute maximum of $25, but otherwise you're best suited to your imagination - you will be dissapointed otherwise.

A definite must for any Donaldson reader! I can't imagine the amount of work that must have went into the construction of this book! The Land comes to life through meticulously researched and constructed illustrations and maps. Virtually all of the places presented in both the Covenant series are illustrated and scaled. Maps of Covenant's journey are drawn to scale and labeled to correspond to events in the series. A superbly researched and constructed work. The perfect companion to one of (if not the greatest) fantasy series of all time. Excellent excellent excellent! Since this book is out of print, if Amazon can't get one for you, go to EBay and bid on one. You can't fully appreciate the Covenant series without having read it with Karen's book at your side.

Sorry for the low rating, but I had great difficulty getting through the atlas in several decisive places. Whatever attention to detail there is, the maps are simply too confusing and muddled: there are often several cut-away views in one map, the scale is hard to determine, it is hard to differentiate between various layers of depth, and the choice of perspectives is questionable. Instead of the black/grey/sepia tones of the Atlas of Middle Earth (by the same author), now we have large quantities of out-of-place green all over the pages. To repeat myself, the attention to detail is nice, but several of the sources are so outlandish that it is hard to determine where exactly on the map concrete facts end and Caren Wynn Fonstad's imagination begins. Exact lines are not quoted where they might be expected; rather, we are provided with page and line numbers. Lastly, unlike the above-mentioned Atlas of Middle Earth, Atlas of Dragonlance DOES NOT follow the plots of the books, but uses a region-by-region scheme, making actually following the maps as you are reading into a frustrating chore.

I'm writing unofficial Home Page by Russi

This is a great book for any Dragonlance enthusiast. By some odd reason, I found two of them in the same used bookstore (after hunting everywhere for it for 3 years.) Well, so now I'm the lucky owner of two Atlas's which i don't mind, but still, why do I need two? But anyway, when reading the chronicles and the legends, this is one helpful book to have on hand (while reading the chronicles and legends alone is amazing, its even better when you can follow them along where ever they go) The attention to detail is astounding, and you can figure out the layout of everything in the saga. The only downside is, they don't have kendermore. Pity. That is one town I would love to see. :)