History AllThereInTheManual / Literature

* In ''Literature/SpectralShadows'' there's quite a few instances of this. Any information on characters not yet appeared can only be found out if you read the Character List. Some additional information on characters and plots are also only found in said list or by reading the author's Website/LiveJournal.

* ''Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium'': There's a huge deal of background material about Middle-earth written by Creator/JRRTolkien, if only you have ''enough time''. First published were the appendices to ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''. For about twenty-five years before the publication of ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'', it was the best source of information about Middle-earth's backstory and went a long way towards giving it a historical feel. Then there are ''Literature/UnfinishedTalesOfNumenorAndMiddleEarth'' and the 12-volume ''Literature/HistoryOfMiddleEarth''. And ''then'' there are books collection versions of individual stories: ''Literature/TheChildrenOfHurin'', ''Literature/BerenAndLuthien'', ''Literature/TheFallOfGondolin'', ''Literature/TheFallOfNumenor''...All those books have tons of information about the history, culture and languages of the peoples of Middle-earth, as well as differing or earlier drafts of the stories. It should be mentioned it is uncertain how much of this material was actually intended for publication since Christopher Tolkien, appointed by his father as is literary executor, is responsible for all the works mentioned above.[[note]]That said, the elder Tolkien was interested in creating languages, and started some of the stories to give them a framework and 'history'. ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' was his first ''published'' work to allude to any of it (''Literature/TheHobbit'' was edited later to tie it to ''LOTR''). Since he kept revising the unpublished works until his death, that's why there's an uncertainty on [[WhatCouldHaveBeen what the final story would have been).[[/note]]

* ''Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium'': There's a huge deal of background material about Middle-earth written by Creator/JRRTolkien, if only you have ''enough time''. First published were the appendices to ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''. For about twenty-five years before the publication of ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'', it was the best source of information about Middle-earth's backstory and went a long way towards giving it a historical feel. Then there are ''Literature/UnfinishedTalesOfNumenorAndMiddleEarth'' and the 12-volume ''Literature/HistoryOfMiddleEarth''. And ''then'' there are books collection versions of individual stories: ''Literature/TheChildrenOfHurin'', ''Literature/BerenAndLuthien'', ''Literature/TheFallOfGondolin'', ''Literature/TheFallOfNumenor''...All those books have tons of information about the history, culture and languages of the peoples of Middle-earth, as well as differing or earlier drafts of the stories. It should be mentioned it is uncertain how much of this material was actually intended for publication since Christopher Tolkien, appointed by his father as is literary executor, is responsible for all the works mentioned above.

* There's a surpising amount of detailed information and worldbuilding in the background of ''Literature/TheTwilightSaga'', that didn't end up in the books. It's first noticeable in ''Breaking Dawn'', which has a vampire index at the end with all the members of the featuered vampire covens, especially the Volturi. Meyer expanded on some of those background characters in the [=FAQs=] of her website, until she published ''The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide'' which elaborated in detail about these backstories. Many readers felt those [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot would have been more interesting]] than the main love story (the Volturi alone are ''ripe'' with it). But aside from the guest covens and villains, even the Cullens themselves are not fully explored in the books: how many would guess that [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter Rosalie has a degree in astrophysics]] based on the books alone?

* It may surprise some to learn that some of the most famous parts of ''Literature/TheIliad'' -- the invocation of the Achilles heel and the Trojan Horse, for instance -- are not actually in the Iliad. Instead, they're in ''Literature/TheOdyssey''. Similarly, the cause of the war and the recruiting of many of the warriors are told in outside sources.
** To be accurate, the Iliad and Odyssey are the only surviving parts of a cycle of epic poems about the Trojan War. We do have descriptions of what was in those lost parts though, and that includes most of the background mentioned.
*** And to be exact, neither the Achilles Heel nor Trojan Horse appear in The Odyssey. They appear in Literature/TheAeneid, written by Roman Vergilius (Virgil) some 700 years later.

* In the {{Literature/Bible}}, it says after the reign of each king "For the rest of his deeds and achievements, you can read book X". Except these days, [[MissingEpisode you cannot]].

* Literature/TheTalmud began as oral commentary on the Hebrew Bible by learned rabbis. Eventually these commentaries were written down and collected into a single document.

* There's a huge deal of background material about Middle-earth written by Creator/JRRTolkien, if only you have ''enough time''. First published were the appendices to ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''. For about twenty-five years before the publication of ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'', it was the best source of information about Middle-earth's backstory and went a long way towards giving it a historical feel. Then there are ''Literature/UnfinishedTalesOfNumenorAndMiddleEarth'' and the 12-volume(!) ''Literature/HistoryOfMiddleEarth''. All those books have tons of information about the history, culture and languages of the peoples of Middle-earth, as well as differing or earlier drafts of the stories. It should be mentioned it is uncertain how much of this material was actually intended for publication since Christopher Tolkien, appointed by his father as is literary executor, is responsible for all the works mentioned above. Much of the material is, to quote the other wiki, "unfinished, abandoned, alternative and outright contradictory accounts, since they were always a work in progress." There have been many accusations that Christopher has been publishing his father's wastepaper basket.

** There's an old ''Franchise/StarWars'' [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons DnD]] manual called "Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy Sourcebook" which largely is there to give stats for the characters and locations of the trilogy so that gamers can play them. (Thrawn's stats are slightly terrifying. AuthorityEqualsAsskicking, indeed.) But it also comes with biographies that say a little more about the characters than could be gleaned from the books and tiny stories that illustrate some points. Some of these -- for example, the bit about Wedge Antilles' parents dying on their fuel station when pirates took off without unhooking -- were elaborated on later by other writers.

* The author of ''Literature/{{Twisted}}'' is also an artist and has drawn all kinds of supplemental material relating to her were-roller coaster's anatomy and function.

* ''Literature/{{Fallocaust}}'' has LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters, so the author maintains a [[http://www.quilcarter.com/chimera-glossery/ glossary]] of the chimeras on his website. Although it only covers chimeras (So major characters like Reno, Killian and even Silas aren't covered), and to date some of the younger chimeras aren't covered (Such as Jade, Adler or Chaser), it does help flesh out some of the more minor characters and give more information about major characters that, to date, has only been hinted at in the series.

* There's a huge deal of background material about Middle-earth written by Creator/JRRTolkien, if only you have ''enough time''. First published were the appendices to ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''. For about twenty-five years before the publication of ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'', it was the best source of information about Middle-earth's backstory and went a long way towards giving it a historical feel. Then there are ''Literature/UnfinishedTalesOfNumenorAndMiddleEarth'' and the 12-volume(!) ''Literature/HistoryOfMiddleEarth''. All those books have tons of information about the history, culture and languages of the peoples of Middle-earth, as well as differing or earlier drafts of the stories.
** It is uncertain how much of this material was actually intended for publication. Christopher Tolkien, appointed by his father as is literary executor, is responsible for all the works mentioned above. Much of the material is, to quote the other wiki, "unfinished, abandoned, alternative and outright contradictory accounts, since they were always a work in progress." There have been many accusations that Christopher has been publishing his father's wastepaper basket.
** But then, how many other authors had a publishable wastepaper basket in the first place?

* Creator/GregEgan stuffs his stories with heady physics that is almost impossible to fully convey without diagrams and calculus. He has interactive animated simulations on his website for the confused yet still interested. He's recently taken this UpToEleven, posting ''eighty thousand words'' along with ''hundreds of illustrative diagrams'' to describe the alternate-universe physics he invented for ''Literature/{{Orthogonal}}''.