On December 12, 2022, Candlemark & Gleam will release A.M. Tuomala’s The Map and the Territory, a riveting, sui generis apocalyptic picareque fantasy in a richly imagined, fully inhabited fictional world. The work, first in the series Spell and Sextant, is equal parts Station Eleven and Emberverse. Seamlessly fusing science and magic, it’s a unique retelling of the consequences of hubris and the refusal of those with power to contemplate careless stewardship.

The Map and the Territory received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist, and boasts a stunning cover by H. Won. The digital version is available for pre-order at Amazon, B&N and Kobo; and if all goes as it should, the paperback pre-order should also go live by the end of this week. Here’s its synopsis to whet appetites:

When the sky breaks apart and an earthquake shatters the seaside city of Sharis, cartographer Rukha Masreen is far from home. Caught in the city’s ruins with only her tools and her wits, she meets a traveling companion who will change her course forever: the wizard Eshu, who stumbles out of a mirror with hungry ghosts on his heels.

He’s everything that raises her hackles: high-strung, grandiloquent, stubborn as iron. But he needs to get home, too, and she doesn’t want him to have to make the journey alone.

As they cross the continent together, though, Rukha and Eshu soon realize that the disaster that’s befallen their world is much larger than they could have imagined. The once-vibrant pathways of the Mirrorlands are deserted. Entire cities lie entombed in crystal. And to make matters worse, a wild god is hunting them down. The further they travel from familiar territory, the more their fragile new friendship cracks under the strain.

To survive the end of their world, Rukha and Eshu will need more than magic and science—they’ll need each other.

A.M. Tuomala lives in western New York, somewhere between Niagara Gorge and the Eternal Flame. In addition to hiking those sublime landscapes, Tuomala enjoys researching eighteenth-century science, collecting rocks, and building new worlds. Tuomala’s previous novels, Erekos and Drakon, also received starred reviews and Among-Year’s-Best status in Publishers Weekly and Booklist.

Because GoodReads giveaways are no longer free and our coffers are of the usual size for indie micro-presses, we will be doing a direct giveaway of the full digital package for The Map and the Territory (it will include the PDF that contains all the print flourishes). You can enter it by leaving a comment to this post or by sending an email (with subject line “Map and Territory Giveaway”) to our website address. Please rest assured that your email will only be visible to the site admin.

The giveaway will run from November 14 to midnight of December 11, and random winners will be picked to receive digital copies of the novel. For up to 25 requests, there will be one award copy. For up to 50 requests, two copies; and beyond that, three copies.

We can hardly wait to share this remarkable work with the world. Until the launch on December 12, keep your scientific and magical instruments sharp!

Note added on December 12: the giveaway is now closed.  We’ll pick winners and contact them within a week.