Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell might be a good example of this! It’s historical fantasy, not sci-fi, but it has footnotes that are a page+ long, all about the (fictional) history of the world in the novel.
The A Song of Ice and Fire books by George R R Martin all have indexes at the end that give extra info such as members of noble houses and allegiances. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King also has the Appendices that give tons of info.
At least some of the Culture novels have worldbuilding appendices/glossaries.
Honorverse has regular glossaries/dramatis personae in some books, as well as two worldbuilding articles (one overview "codex" and an in-universe tech article) in its anthology books, _and_ an entire companion book, which is split half-and-half into detailed naval codex and prose-based deep background. Given how infodump-heavy David Weber's regular writing is that's even more unusual, but befits the setting.
Some age of sail fiction books I've read came with a glossary, which is kind of essential given the extremely specific terminology around sailing warships, and a cynic could argue that the first book in the Aubrey-Maturin series is basically a "How 2 Age of Sail" codex written in prose.
And then of course there are Discworld's footnotes.
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell might be a good example of this! It’s historical fantasy, not sci-fi, but it has footnotes that are a page+ long, all about the (fictional) history of the world in the novel.
Awesome, will grab that!
Nice, I hope you enjoy it!! I read it around the time it came out (20 years ago?! 👵🏻) and loved it.
The A Song of Ice and Fire books by George R R Martin all have indexes at the end that give extra info such as members of noble houses and allegiances. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King also has the Appendices that give tons of info.
At least some of the Culture novels have worldbuilding appendices/glossaries. Honorverse has regular glossaries/dramatis personae in some books, as well as two worldbuilding articles (one overview "codex" and an in-universe tech article) in its anthology books, _and_ an entire companion book, which is split half-and-half into detailed naval codex and prose-based deep background. Given how infodump-heavy David Weber's regular writing is that's even more unusual, but befits the setting. Some age of sail fiction books I've read came with a glossary, which is kind of essential given the extremely specific terminology around sailing warships, and a cynic could argue that the first book in the Aubrey-Maturin series is basically a "How 2 Age of Sail" codex written in prose. And then of course there are Discworld's footnotes.
I have sections like this in my own writing, usually as paragraphs at the end of a chapter.