I feel like the 3rd book of dungeon crawler Carl could’ve been this but the author put in a note at the beginning saying essentially, ‘it’s too complicated. Don’t try to follow what’s going on and where they are in the map lol’

The original Dragonlance book, Dragons of Autumn Twilight, didn't need a map. Because a major plot point was that all the maps they had were pre-cataclysm and over a hundred years old. They had smaller local maps, but no explorers had stitched them together as 100 years is short to do that. So traveling over the map outside of where they would normally be in their lives, meant they couldn't be sure where they were going or where they'd end up.

They went to Tarsis-by-the-sea to take a ship to cut down their travel time, only to find it had become a dry seabed.

They did still have a map, but much more local to where the group started out and lived. I suppose that's why in most fantasy settings, you need a local map, because big world ones like Tolkien had require a lot of stability over a long period of time, along with trade and a market for large map.

I present to you, my favorite book map of all time:

This reminds me of when Ultima Underworld first came out in 1992, and it came with a map of the first level printed on a piece of fabric, and it looked hand-drawn. I was 13, and I have never played a complicated adventure game like that before, so it was extremely extremely helpful in figuring out how the game worked and how to visualize the levels of the game moving forward. Plus, as the character had a map just like that one, it really helped with the immersion.

Considering that, 34 years later, it is still resonating this strongly in my memory, I’m definitely in favor of maps being included in fantasy stories.

Terry Pratchett agreed with your aunt

And the audiobook version needs to have a pdf/png of the map as part of the download.

Idk I listened to the entire Stormlight Archives and never thought to look up the map. When I was younger I would have agreed, but now...

Great book but mapmaking could use some work. One of these is a lush rich planet, and the other is a near-barren moon. Which one do you think is the moon?

reminds me when i read 100 years of solitude without family tree, big mistake, but on my defense i didn't know what i was getting into and it was before the Internet

I also don't think you need anything beyond a very rough map which sometimes can be directly inferred from reading the book. Anything more is like cover art or illustrations: it competes with my mental picture while I read it and I don't prefer it.

They really dont. Dont get me wrong, on my current reread of the Robin Hobb series, yes I enjoy looking at the map cause I already know the story.

But generally speaking I dont read fantasy for the geography.

I give you Terry Pratchett's Sourcery:

This book does not contain a map. Please feel free to draw your own.

phantom tollbooth

What about fantasy open world game. Do they need a dynamic map?

Last time I was asked that question, I replied: "Many of my family members believe in god".