Literature / The Map to Everywhere

The Map to Everywhere is a YA Fantasy series by Carrie Ryan and John Parke Davis. It is about Marigold "Marrill" Aesterwest, who gets swept up in an adventure on the Pirate Stream, a magical sea that leads to every world in creation. She teams up with forgettable thief Fin and the crew of the Enterprising Kraken when her attempts to find a cure for her sick mother and return set her against a prophecy that threatens to destroy the entire Pirate Stream.

Books in the series are:

The Map to Everywhere

City of Thirst

Shadows of the Lost Sun

Iron Tide Rising

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Provides Examples of:

• Babysitter Friendship: The second book introduces Marrill's babysitter Remy, who Marrill finds a little irritating, but once she's swept onto the Pirate Stream and speedily takes several levels in badass, the two become firm friends.
• Bittersweet Ending: The Pirate Stream has been saved, Ardent is back to normal, Marrill can return to the Stream once a year to visit, and Remy has rescued Coll from the Sheshefesh...but Annalessa is trapped in the form of the Compass Rose, Remy Can't Go Home Again, the mother Fin was trying to find is dead, and Marrill has given up any possibility of curing her mother with magic.
• Blessed with Suck: Fin's forgettability makes him an excellent thief and spy, but also means that no-one aside from Marrill, not even the rest of the Kraken's crew, remembers him for more than a few minutes.
• Crash-Into Hello: Remy is on-edge enough after being forcibly dragged into another world, kidnapped by pirates, rescued by different, weirder pirates and stuck in the animate rigging that she takes a swing at Coll, only to fall on him instead when the ship rocks on a wave, leading to awkward blushing from both of them.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Coll vs. several Monervan guards. It takes a few seconds and ends with the guards unconscious.
• Determinator:
  • Remy's determination that so long as she's on babysitting duty no-one will be left behind is strong enough to grant her a level of immunity from Fin's forgettability.
  • Coll has shades of this as well, as shown during the evacuation of Monerva.
    Ardent: Can you hold on for just a little longer?
    Coll: I will. Whether I can or not.
• Distressed Dude: In Shadows of the Lost Sun, Coll is trapped by the Sheshefesh in the Knot of the Coiled Rope. He's rescued by Remy offstage during the Time Skip.
• The Dreaded: The Master of the Iron Ship is regarded with horror by sailors and landsmen alike, and the subject of several terrifying legends.
• Evil Former Friend: Serth, the violently insane Meressian Oracle, was once a dear friend and colleague of Ardent and Annalessa.
  • Ardent becomes this after his Face–Heel Turn leaves him Master of the Iron Ship, though ultimately it doesn't stick.
• Face–Heel Turn: Ardent, disheartened by being unable to find or save Annalessa, becomes the Master of the Iron Ship and attempts to destroy the Stream. Marrill and Fin eventually manage to talk him down.
• Flying Dutchman: Coll, who cannot stop sailing for longer than a day or so lest his Power Tattoo creep around his neck and choke him to death. By the end of the series, Remy has been caught by the curse of the Sheshefesh and become this as well.
• The Gadfly: The Naysayer, who delights in being as curmudgeonly and annoying as possible.
• Heel–Face Turn: Serth, once the madness brought first by the Oracle and then the Lost Sun of Dzannin is cured, joins the crew of the Kraken in their attempt to save the Stream.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Fig tackles her Rise to prevent her spreading the Iron Tide to the Kraken, and is turned to iron herself.
  • Coll and Fig almost make one when they're nearly swallowed by the Power of the Void caused by the Lost Sun of Dzannin while trying to rescue Ardent, Marrill, Fin and a handful of Shell Weavers. The Ropebone Man saves them at the last minute.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Marrill tries this on Ardent, currently the Master of the Iron Ship and bent on destroying the Pirate Stream. It works.
• Implacable Man: The Rise, who have all weaknesses or vulnerabilities stripped away into their Fade, making them essentially untouchable. No matter how many times the protagonists slip past them, they'll be back.
• Lizard Folk: The Naysayer is essentially an oversized, four-armed lizard.
• Mad Oracle: Serth, who was driven insane by drinking water from the Pirate Stream to become the Meressian Oracle.
• Painting the Medium: The size, shape, font and placing of the text on the page all vary to reflect events, settings or emotions. Particular mention goes to the scene in which Marrill and Fin find themselves reading each other's thoughts, with overlapping lines of text in different sizes representing conscious and subconscious thoughts.
• Parents in Distress: Marrill's mother is seriously ill, and the second two books have her searching the Pirate Stream for something that will save her. The Wish Orb proves unhelpful because using it will unleash the Salt Sand King, and by the end of the series she's given up her shard of the mirror of possibility to reverse the Iron Tide and save the Stream, meaning that Marrill now has no chance of saving her mother herself.
• Phantom Thief: Fin may well get caught while stealing, but as soon as he's out of sight for a few seconds it's as though he never existed.
• Place Beyond Time: Monerva, a permanently-sinking city at the bottom of a magical whirlpool. The protagonists realise it's also one of these when they meet people in the city who are heroes of various legends detailing their escape from Monerva, but for them, the escape hasn't happened yet. When the whirlpool is destroyed and the city evacuated to escape the Iron Tide, everyone returns to the point in time they left in the first place, beginning all the legends.
• Playing with Fire: The Salt Sand King, a being of sentient flame who burns whatever he touches. His land is a constantly-burning, ravaged plain.
• Portal Fantasy: The story begins with Marrill stumbling onto the Pirate Stream when it brushes Earth.
• Power of the Void: The Lost Sun of Dzannin destroys the fabric of reality wherever it goes.
• Power Tattoo: Coll's rope tattoo, which allows him to navigate the Pirate Stream. Turns out to also be The Worsening Curse Mark.
• The Prophecy: The Meressian Prophecy, foretelling the rising of the Lost Sun of Dzannin and the destruction of the Pirate Stream.
• Prophecy Twist: The protagonists think that the Meressian Prophecy has been completed by the end of the first book, owing to several similarities between events and lines of the poem. The second reveals that was False Reassurance, and that the real Prophecy is now in train.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The crew of the Enterprising Kraken consists of a cursed and possibly immortal captain, an elderly, heartbroken wizard, a Street Urchin no-one can remember, several seafaring rats dressed as pirates, a giant made of rope who cannot leave the ship, a curmudgeonly multi-armed monster, and Marrill, a human eleven-year-old (plus her cat). The second book adds Remy, Marill's Determinator babysitter.
• Really 700 Years Old: Coll, who looks about sixteen, is pushing five hundred, and the Naysayer is older than the Pirate Stream.
• Robe and Wizard Hat: Ardent wears these as everyday attire, though his wizard hat is closer to a long, floppy nightcap.
• Somebody Named "Nobody": Fin U. Lanu, from the acronym FNULNU - First Name Unknown, Last Name Unknown.
• Spoof Aesop: Coll delivers a Curb-Stomp Battle to several Monervan guards, then immediately turns around to inform his companions, "Violence is never the answer. Those gentlemen just tripped."
• Sue Donym: The young Fin was left at an orphanage by a Miss Notah Reelnaym, who hailed from Nowereneerheer.
• Taking the Bullet: Remy shoves Marrill out of the way of one of the Sheshefesh's spines in Shadows of the Lost Sun. It's not revealed until much later that she was caught by the spine instead and now carries the Sheshefesh's curse.
• Tentacled Terror: The Sheshefesh, a squidlike monstrosity whose lair is made up of its own enormous body.
• Time Skip: A year or so takes place between the first and second books, and several years go by between the end of Iron Tide Rising and its epilogue.
• Took a Level in Badass: Remy goes from a teenage babysitter fretting over her exams to a skilled navigator and the immortal co-captain of the Enterprising Kraken, who defeats the Sheshefesh offstage.
• Wizard Beard: Ardent has a long, white beard. The Master of the Iron Ship is also drawn with one, which makes sense, as he's Ardent.
• You Can't Go Home Again: By the end of the series, Remy has taken on the curse of the Sheshefesh and can't put in to port long enough to return home without being choked by her Power Tattoo. Marrill carries letters from her parents once a year.