I was discussing this recently and I compared it to the Lord of the Rings. Both authors are writing novels in complex constructed worlds. Where they strongly di

I was discussing this recently and I compared it to the Lord of the Rings. Both authors are writing novels in complex constructed worlds. Where they strongly differ is how they handle this. Tolkien mixes in a lot of explanation. The history of the Ring is told twice, once in Hobbiton and once in Rivendell and both times we receive the background information as explained to an audience surrogate character (Frodo). Herbert goes the opposite way. He simply starts using terminology and referencing entities and histories as though you already know them. You pick it up by osmosis (and newer editions of the book, like the one I read, have a large glossary in the back to simplify matters), but never really get a thorough explanation of the world we are in. I think this is one of the reasons that the Dune Encyclopedia was so popular early on. It's telling that Tolkien never really worked on the Middle Earth guidebooks, but Herbert did. The Chronicles of Amber flat-out rocked.