A guidebook for tourists, assuming that tourists entered into
fantasy novels and became the main characters of the stories
(see Dark Lord of Derkholm). It starts with an introduction on
how to use the book ("1. Find the MAP. It will be there.
No tour of Fantasyland is complete without
one. It will be found in the front part of your brochure...")
Afterwards is the Toughpick, which contains dictionary like
entries. It assumes that fantasy novels are a fair and balanced
representation of Fantasyland, so alleys are listed as the most
frequent kind of road in towns, and people never get colds.
Since this book has no plot or characters, it's rather difficult
to give a summary of it. So here are two entries out of the
Toughpick section:
Animals. See ENEMY SPIES, FOOD, and TRANSPORTATION.
Apart from creatures expressly designed for one of these three
purposes (and this includes HARES and RABBITS), there appear to be
almost no animals in Fantasyland. Any other animal you meet will
be the result either of a WIZARD'S BREEDING PROGRAM or of
SHAPESHIFTING. You may on the other hand hear things,
such as roaring, trampling, and frequently the hooting of owls,
but these are strongly suspected to be sound-effects only, laid on
by the Management when it feels the need for a little local color.
Animal Skins are much in use and are of four kinds:
-
Trappers' furs. These are occasionally brought south in
bundles. As there appear to be no animals to be trapped, it is
likely that these skins are either cunning manmade imitations or
imported from another world.
-
Furs worn by NORTHERN BARBARIANS. It is possible that these
are also false or imported. Another possibility is that the
animals providing these furs are now extinct (see ECOLOGY) and
that the famous fur loinclothes are handed down from father to
son.
-
Leather for BOOTS, VESTS, etc. is again of mysterious
origin. (See DOMESTIC ANIMALS.) There are not enough cows to
go round, but the leather has to come from somewhere
-
Skins of which the TENTS of DESERT NOMADS are made. Here the
source is obvious. Nomads breed HORSES: the Tents have to be
made from horsehide. In fact, it is entirely probable that
Horses provide all four kinds of Animal Skin.
Title: The Tough Guide to Fantasyland
Author: Diana Wynne Jones
Publisher: Daw Books
ISBN: 0886778328