The Cartographers

A Novel

By: Peng Shepherd

Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller, Nancy Wu, Karen Chilton, Ron Butler, Neil Hellegers, Jason Culp, Brittany Pressley

Length: 14 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

From the critically acclaimed author of The Book of M, a highly imaginative thriller about a young woman who discovers that a strange map in her deceased father’s belongings holds an incredible, deadly secret—one that will lead her on an extraordinary adventure and to the truth about her family’s dark history.

What is the purpose of a map?

Nell Young’s whole life and greatest passion is cartography. Her father, Dr. Daniel Young, is a legend in the field, and Nell’s personal hero. But she hasn't seen or spoken to him ever since he cruelly fired her and destroyed her reputation after an argument over an old, cheap gas station highway map.

But when Dr. Young is found dead in his office at the New York Public Library, with the very same seemingly worthless map hidden in his desk, Nell can’t resist investigating. To her surprise, she soon discovers that the map is incredibly valuable, and also exceedingly rare. In fact, she may now have the only copy left in existence… because a mysterious collector has been hunting down and destroying every last one—along with anyone who gets in the way.

But why?

To answer that question, Nell embarks on a dangerous journey to reveal a dark family secret, and discover the true power that lies in maps...

Perfect for fans of Joe Hill and V.E. Schwab, The Cartographers is an ode to art and science, history and magic—a spectacularly imaginative, modern story about an ancient craft and places still undiscovered.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2022 Peng Shepherd (P)2022 HarperCollins Publishers

Mediocre at best. Narrators were good.

I'm a fan of old maps. And a fan of books like the Midnight Circus, and hoped this would be in a similar vein. So, I was pretty excited about this going in. But, the characters are one dimensional, and it's pretty inconceivable that a group of friends went from living and working together for close to a decade, to never speaking to each other for over 25 years. And in that process, all of them (except the father) abandoning a two yr old child that they all loved as family. And while the father stayed in the girls life, he was barely there. (How is this character not seriously messed up, and in therapy? Talk about abandonment issues).
And there is a problem with the "Magic" within the maps. Such a lame concept. If mistakes in a map can suddenly become real, including one hand drawn on a business card, then I guess any hand drawn anything can become real? No special process, paper, ink, magical incantation. Nope. Any person can draw anything into existence. And THESE characters are the first in all the history of humanity to stumble upon it.

Good Story, But Full of Cliches & Logical Lapses

An adventure story couched in a highly-romanticized and technophobic notion of mapmaking, The Cartographers is fun and flawed. The author doesn’t seem to know very much about cartography, but this isn’t a text book, so that can be forgiven. They also have some half-baked ideas about what goes into a PhD dissertation. The writing wavers between effective and awkward, often leaning on cliches, repetition, and over-statements. Most of the characters are one dimensional and fairly dense despite how clever they’re supposed to be. The internal logic of the world is often weak and wiggly. All that being said, the story is fun. If you can just roll with the adventure, you can enjoy this book. If you get hung up on awkward writing, give it a pass. This author has potential, and I’m sure they will get better with time and experience.

4.5 Stars - such a great story...please read it.

This is a great mystery...using the idea of maps. So cool. 

I usually don't look up too much about the books that I read. i like to be surprised by the story, itself...but for this book...I just loved watching interviews with Peng...and hearing her tell a little bit of the story.

So cool.

It is a VERY good mystery. One interview said it is a treasure hunt for adults, and I agree with that.

Great reveals. Great characters. Great application in the real world, too.

Also, putting yourself within the story and what you'd do. Had a lot of fun.

The end is also very good. Not everyone will love it, but I actually did. I've read the last chapter three times.

Peng Shepherd's next book is a Science Fiction Space Opera, from what I hear. Cannot wait. An automatic buy IMO.

80% quite good and then the last 20% happens

I enjoyed the book until the ending rationale. very contrived. Characters were alright but one dimensional and never cared nor felt connected to any of them. no

it is a fantasy book, so be ready to accept somethings for stories sake. not a bad book, but not good either. narrator did a pretty good job

Entertaining

Entertaining! Took a bit to get into it, but enjoyable. It kept me guessing all the way through.

Reality with light-hearted Sci-Fi

I enjoyed the story and the sci-fi twist. Makes you think "what if". Characters are somewhat believable, but rather 2-dimensional.
My biggest beef is the performance. The reader changed the syllable accents on so many words it was annoying. I wished the readers for the individual character chapters were used throughout the book.
Give it a read! It's entertaining!

What an Adventure!!!

If you love NYC, maps, heists, and the NY Public Library, read this book. Basically it’s The Thomas Crown Affair meets Treasure Island.

Good premise. Poor execution.

I love the premise of this book, and it started out really fun. Unfortunately, it fell apart halfway through when it became predictable and silly. And the end was terrible. No mother is ever going to make the choice that plays out in this book if she’s really as exceptional as she is made out to be. Just plain stupid.

Audible Needs Better Review Control

This was a fun, quick, touching, and interesting story. Entertaining, and fast moving, I found myself listening to this book as often as possible.

I have seen the page for this book with a LOT of bad reviews. Don’t listen to them. This is a mystery with elements of magical realism. The top review for this book currently has seven up ratings, and it is terrible criticism, as if the person only read the first few hours of the book.

Don’t listen to the negative reviews, read it for yourself and make the decision. This isn’t grand literature, but it is a good mystery/ summer read/ entertaining novel that I could definitely see optioned as a movie.

I really think Audible needs to improve their review algorithm and system, you find terrible reviews like this all over their website from people that haven’t even finished the books, and aren’t contributing meaningful discussion.

Cartographers?

Cartographers are people who draw maps. This is about a group that get to be friends while getting degrees during college. One summer they decided to rent a house in upper New York to write a book. All goes well until they fed over a secret town.

This changes the whole summer and the future. I won’t tell anymore because I feel they are spoilers. But I will tell you there are many unexpected turns and exciting experiences for everyone.