Dec 11, 2025
To:Mike Psellos
You could do both.
Worldbuilding through dialogue is of course better, but it’s in the nature of the medium that as a reader you don’t always catch everything (especially when there are an extremely large number of things that require explanation, which is definitely the case in an alternative world).
That’s why I personally like it when a few pages simply summarize certain things.
George R. R. Martin did this as well in the form of family trees, etc., which I always found extremely helpful.
And you actually did the same in Pliniad in a very good way with your Historia Naturalis !