Corvinus85 Posted June 25, 2015 Share Posted June 25, 2015 Perhaps a weird topic in the age of Google, but I still like to own or at least peruse such a book, not just for the content, but its artistry. Any that you've enjoyed reading, or think people should have in their book shelves? As a kid, I had an animal encyclopedia, which included the evolution of life on Earth.. I spent days and days on that, but I don't remember its exact title.The most recent book I've purchased was The World of Ice and Fire. I also have one for The Wheel of Time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilentRoamer Posted June 25, 2015 Share Posted June 25, 2015 The Robert Jordan one co-authored with Teresa Patterson? The World of Wheel of Time I think its called. Theres also Peter F. Hamiltons Confederation Handbook which is a sort of guide to the Nights Dawn trilogy. Also the World of Shannara is a hefty looking guidebook. Those are three I own that came to the top of my head. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iskaral Pust Posted June 25, 2015 Share Posted June 25, 2015 Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun supposedly almost requires the companion book Lexicon Urthus.I read most of it without the companion, but I don't know what I missed. I plan to get the companion when I reread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted June 25, 2015 Share Posted June 25, 2015 The existing Wheel of Time one is okay. The art is dreadful but the text is pretty useful, and set up some stuff in the later books of the series. The new one - The Wheel of Time Companion, out in November - is more than twice the size, however, and should be a lot more in-depth. The ASoIaF one is pretty good, if a little too vague in places. But that was a stylistic choice and it works reasonably well, so fair enough. The Shannara one is interesting, especially because Brooks told Patterson she could make a lot of stuff up herself and he just went with it in later novels of the actual series. The recent Riftwar one was a totally piss-poor, half-arsed effort. Avoid. There's tons for Middle-earth, but my favourite one by far is The Atlas of Middle-earth by Karen Wynn Fonstad. Her atlases for the Pern, Thomas Covenant, Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance worlds are also all pretty good. It's a shame she passed away in the 1990s, I'd have loved to have seen her tackle some of the more recent fantasy series (especially ASoIaF, which is crying out for a proper atlas at this point). The original Discworld Companion by Stephen Briggs and Terry Pratchett was great. Later volumes suffered from trying to cover too many books in too short a page count, but the original had some very funny lines in it. Peter F. Hamilton's Confederation Handbook is quite good. One of the most random ones is New Sun, a guidebook and roleplaying game based on The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe. Highly recommended is Don't Panic! The Official Guide to The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, written by one pre-fame Neil Gaiman. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted June 25, 2015 Share Posted June 25, 2015 The original Discworld Companion by Stephen Briggs and Terry Pratchett was great. Later volumes suffered from trying to cover too many books in too short a page count, but the original had some very funny lines in it. The Art of Discworld by Pratchett and Paul Kidby is worthwhile too. The info is slight but there are interesting bits and the art is absolutely gorgeous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astromech Posted June 25, 2015 Share Posted June 25, 2015 The Dorothy Dunnett Companion, Vols. 1 & 2, by Elspeth Morrison. Pretty essential for both The Lymond Chronicles and the House of Niccolo series. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Marquis de Leech Posted June 25, 2015 Share Posted June 25, 2015 Robert Foster's Complete Guide to Middle-earth is a good reference material for The Hobbit, LOTR, and The Silmarillion. By contrast, avoid David Day like the plague. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gasp of Many Reeds Posted June 26, 2015 Share Posted June 26, 2015 The existing Wheel of Time one is okay. The art is dreadful but the text is pretty useful, and set up some stuff in the later books of the series. The new one - The Wheel of Time Companion, out in November - is more than twice the size, however, and should be a lot more in-depth. Will they finally solve the eternal question of where Goaban was supposed to be? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jo498 Posted June 26, 2015 Share Posted June 26, 2015 I loved encyclopedias as a child (and still do to some extent) but except for an old volume of essays on Tolkien (Master of Middle-earth) I have no companions to fantasy literature. I do have two companions for "Swallows and Amazons", bought when I was completely enthralled with that series, Wardale: "In Search of Swallows and Amazons: Arthur Ransome's Lakeland" and Hardyment: "Arthur Ransome and Captain Flint's Trunk". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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