Glossary/Gazetteer?

[Fred Stanton]

On Tuesday the 12th of May, we read chapters 28 and 29 of Gone to Earth, and what really stuck out is that I seem to be confusing the heck outta people. Terms successfully introduced early in the novel have largely been forgotten now that it's more than a year later. I certainly wouldn't want to force a reader to go back through past pages to remember a concept's introduction, so now I'm wondering this: Is Gone to Earth one of those novels that's going to require an appendix with a glossary and gazetteer?

I've seen these kind of appendices used (even overused) in genre. At worst they're a shortcut to avoid explaining things in context, or used to increase the page count. At best, they're an entertaining read in their own right (I'm breathlessly awaiting Peter Jackson's adaptation of Appendix B from Lord of the Rings). I'm no Tolkien or Herbert, but I'm willing to give it a try if y'all think it would help.

What do you think, sirs?

[wwheeler]

I vote yes. But I also think it needs to be pithy and entertaining as you can possibly make it (i.e., not Encyclopedia Brittanica style at all).

[Fred Stanton]

The world certainly doesn't need more bland entries from the Encyclopedophilia Prophylactica (that's a Doon reference, for those of you keeping score at home). I think Herbert can serve as a model here, especially the biographical exerpts which, in three to twelve lines, tell a flash fiction short story about the person. Finding a way to describe each term in three to twelve lines (3d4 lines, for the gamers in the audience) and present each entry as a piece of flash fiction should do the trick.

But what to describe? Do I just stick to new words — ligare, kathezome, gens/gentes, et al., or should I include places (Nakita, Ishan, Zurus, Larousou Sphere, Mikairi Yumanchi, etc.) and languages (Mirelle, Zuric, Lintap, etc.) and other matters? Or should I just do it all and cut out whatever isn't interesting?