'The Map Thief' has won the prestigious 3711 Terra Prize for Literature, winning its author a glittering silver cup and 500,000 LOD prize money. The novel, which is about a charming and sophisticated con-man who travelled to every nation in Terra, stealing all of the official maps from deep inside the record collections of government departments, was described by the judges as "an exhilarating and hilarious ride through the overlapping worlds of high culture and government bureaucracy".
Julia Langdon, a dissenting judge on the panel, criticised the book for "having such a ridiculous and unrealistically unbelievable plot that nobody could believe it could possibly happen". However, Professor Luigi Montano, a criminologist from the University of Tanzhagilete in Gaduridos, has warned he "would not be surprised if this book provides the inspiration for a spate of copycat thefts against valuable maps held by government departments" and that "institutions holding valuable maps would be advised to step up their security".
