I absolutely love deep dives into the explanations behind creatures in fantasy and sci-fi, like Roanoake Gaming’s videos exploring how creatures and viruses in movies might work, and I’d really like a few books that would scratch that same itch. It can be scientific explanations of real-world mythology, but I’d really prefer something like an in-universe scholar documenting their findings on, say, vampirism or lycanthropy, and how it actually affects the bodies of the afflicted, or something very similar.
To be clear, I’m not really looking for a STORY, more a book like Dragonology for adults into fantasy. The kind of thing that you can invest hours in reading like it’s your mentor’s notes on your lifelong field of study. Something that fascinates you with lore and in-universe science and gets the wheels turning in your brain, wondering what interesting fact you’ll uncover next, or how each thing really works. Books that cover lots of different universes/settings are great, but I’d also LOVE books that get really in depth on one in particular.
Thank you for your time!
by BoysCanBePrettyToo
6 Comments
I know it’s not quite what you’re looking for, but Gnomes by Will Huygen is similar to this. It reads like a naturalist’s account of gnomes, with similar hand-drawn illustrations and writing.
If I understand correctly, The Science Of Discworld series has wizards from the Disc in situations that explain how their world works? Or something? Seems similar to what you’re looking for, anyway.
The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks doesn’t go into the science of zombies (his zombies are magical anyway, no matter that he claims otherwise) but it treats them as if they were real and gives what sure seems like it would be good advice if you ever find yourself in a zombie apocalypse. There are also good stories about supposed outbreaks throughout history.
The World of Robert Jordan’s the Wheel of Time does this. But it came out between books 7 & 8. My head cannon is that is is written by Harid Fel (an in-world scholar)
Closest I can think of is A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir of Lady Trent by Marie Brennan. It’s book 1/5. The author is an anthropologist and a folklorist and about half of it reads as scientific journal of an exploration and the research study of the dragons. The other half is plot but there are dragons! And serpents and basilisks and drakes in the follow up books.
It’s not a book, but the website community at [World Anvil](https://www.worldanvil.com/) has some really great worlds with tons of in depth articles and maps and documents, etc. It’s really a fun place to explore.
Tyler Bardot and the Bane of the world is very based in real world science. Even the magic works off science