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April 1999
Compiled by Roberta S. Johnson of Des Plaines Public Library, from contributions by the members of Fiction_L.

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Harbors and High Seas : An Atlas and Geographical Guide to the Aubrey-Maturin Novels of Patrick O'Brian by Dean King 1996

A Dragonlover's Guide to Pern by Jody Lynn Nye with Anne McCaffrey 1989

Brother Cadfael's Herb Garden: An Illustrated Companion to Medieval Plants and Their Uses by Robin Whiteman 1997

The Witches Companion: The Official Guide to Anne Rice's Lives of the Mayfair Witches (1994) and The Vampire Companion: The Official Guide to Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles (1993) by Katherine Ramsland

Piers Anthony's Visual Guide to Xanth by Piers Anthony and Jody Lynn Nye 1989

Little House Guidebook by William Anderson 1996

Rivan Codex: Ancient Texts of the Belgariad and the Malloreon by David Eddings 1994

The Hornblower companion; an atlas and personal commentary on the writing of the Hornblower saga, by Forester, C. S. 1964

The world of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan 1997

Codex Derynianus: being a comprehensive guide to the peoples, places & things of the Derynye & the human worlds of the XI Kingdoms by Katherine Kurtz 1998

The Atlas of the Land (Donaldson, Stephen R. -- Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever.) by Karen Wynn Fonstad 1986

A Guide to Barsoom: eleven sections of references in one volume dealing with the Martian stories written by Edgar Rice Burroughs by John Flint Roy 1976

Tarzan Alive; a Definitive Biography of Lord Greystoke by Philip Jose Farmer 1972

Doc Savage; His Apocalyptic Life by Philip Jose Farmer 1973
The Night Master (Walter Brown Gibson, creator of the Shadow) by Robert Sampson 1982

Spider by Robert Sampson 1987

Lexicon Urthus : a dictionary for the Urth cycle (the works of Gene Wolfe) by Michael Andre-Driussi 1994 (same author has a like book on the works of Jack Vance, but I can't find a record for it in WorldCat--the Wolfe title above is on Wolfe's BOOK OF THE NEW SUN series)

A Silverlock companion: the life and works of John Myers Myers 1988

The universes of E.E. Smith by Walter Elik 1972

The Discworld Companion by Terry Pratchett 1997 (there are also published maps to the Discworld, Ankh-Morpork, and the Ramtops, and a devilishly difficult triva book, THE UNSEEN UNIVERSITY COMPANION by David Langford, which almost qualify as well...)

Various sf/f books have been adapted for simulation gaming/war gaming, and the accompanying game books are sometimes substantial enough to qualify as guides to the background of a given world: again, one of the best examples is for Pratchett's series: GURPS DISCWORLD or some such title from Steve Jackson Games

Nero Wolfe of West Thirty-fifth Street; the life and times of America's largest private detective by William Stuart Baring-Gould 1969

The Boys from Grover Avenue: Ed McBain's 87th Precinct Novels by George N. Dove 1985

The James Bond Dossier by Kingsley Amis 1965

The Complete Amber Sourcebook by Theodore Krulik 1996

The Tony Hillerman Companion: A Comprehensive Guide to His Life and Work, edited by Martin Greenberg and Hillerman Country: A Journey Through the Southwest, photographs by Barney Hillerman, with Tony Hillerman.

Spenser's Boston by Robert S. Parker, photographs by Kasho Kumagai. (Although there are a few pages of actual information about Boston, it's almost all photographs and quotes from the Spenser books.)

A Pliocene companion: Being a reader's guide to The many-colored land, The golden torc, The nonborn king, The adversary and more by Julian May 1984

Roger Zelazny's visual guide to Castle Amber Roger Zelazny 1988

www.webrary.org/rs:flbklists/Guides.html
First published on the Web: 11/21/2000
Last updated: 11/21/2000