Review: The map of a new world by Luis Zueco

Review of the book “The map of a new world” by Luis Zueco.
By Raquel San Martin Rodriguez

First he conquered the crown. Then he conquered the world.

Year 1496. After achieving the union of Castile and Aragon, conquering Granada and the Canary Islands, Isabel la Católica is in the final years of her life, but also in those of greatest power. A power and a legacy that she is not willing to lose, not even after her death.

This novel tells the story of the years that forever changed the course of history. When every ship that returned to port could transform the world, a map became the most precious possession in a crown, and the exploits of a traveler were capable of setting an empire ablaze.

My personal assessment:

Luis Zueco presents us with an ambitious story about the time when travel transformed the ancient world and gave way to Modernity. This ode to adventure reflects the years when a map could change History forever.

As in his previous novel The Queen’s board, The central theme is the last years of the reign of Isabella the Catholic, as it begins with the wedding of her daughter Joan of Flanders, and ends with her death. A historical context that also tells of Philip the Fair’s attempt to seize power while Ferdinand the Catholic tries to prevent it. In addition, the novel describes the intention of the Catholic Monarchs to originate a plan of matrimonial alliances and strategic movements so that their successors would dominate the world.

Chess was the guiding thread of his previous novel, where Luis masterfully wove a magnificent novel around the pieces of the game. In this second part, which takes place twenty years later, it will be the journeys, the maps and how the world is changing that will take us through its more than 600 pages on a journey towards modernity.

But there is no novel without its protagonists, and on this occasion we have Noah, a young cartographer who has to flee his native Flanders because he is accused of murder. Noah has always wanted to travel and this is the opportunity to emulate the great travelers of antiquity that he has read so much about. But we also have a great woman, Maria, who is driven by revenge and the desire to finish off Columbus.

These two protagonists, who will take us on a thousand and one separate adventures, will end up converging to give us a magnificent ending to the novel.

With magnificent documentation, introduced in a way that does not overwhelm the reader as it goes in step with the story, making it as dynamic as the adventures that both Noah and Maria are experiencing.

The setting is another point that I want to mention, since Luis has the ability to situate us within his novels without being too descriptive. It is not necessary to describe a room in detail, for example, to situate you in it, and in this Luis does a great job, since a lot of description bores me personally. This novel does not only cover the journeys, but also the relationship between the Italian Renaissance and the beginning of the Golden Age in Spain and how both produced changes, Italy through art and Spain and Portugal undertaking the adventures of discovering what our world was like.

In conclusion, The Map of a New World has been a great journey towards transformation, a book full of adventures, intrigues, mystery, in short, a story that perfectly reflects the desire that human beings have had for centuries to travel and discover the unknown. A book that I have enjoyed and that has made me travel from my sofa. As always, I congratulate Luis for such a fantastic novel and author’s note at the end and I am waiting for a new novel that I am sure is already shaping.