Maps, appendices, cast lists and so on

[Gumboot]

I never look at cast lists - in fact if the book starts with a very long one, it puts me off buying it. I rely on the writer to introduce them in such a way that they stay with me, without needing a reference tool. Don't mind maps, but I like a good artistic one, if you must. A lot of them nowadays seem to be 'caricature' maps, if you know what I mean.

To be fair, really decent maps are pretty hard to make legible in a paperback due to the small size, and the rough texture of the paper.

Russell Kirkpatrick does amazing maps (he's a professional cartographer) but in his books the continental ones are all but impossible to read and have to be stripped of all but the most basic landmarks.