/lit/ - Literature

Can anyone name a book that made you feel like you were exploring a world? I have been enjoying Elden Ring and wondering if you can get a similar sense of the early-game exploration from the written word. Specifically a focus on locations and anomalies of nature.

Are the Clark Ashton Smith books mentioned earlier like this? The closest I've come is BOTNS, which the formaldehyde lake and likeness of Typhon carved into a mountain. The trash piles and lakefolk who drift around on their islands. That gigantic cliff he climbs down and the cave with the ape-men in it. It struck a good balance between generic and out-there-whack-zany ideas that was exactly what I was looking for.

I'm working out something. My magic users are able to read a particular emotion in a psychic fashion. A particular mage might know if you're sad, what you're sad about, and why. A different one would know what if you're afraid, what you're afraid of, and why. They can also use their magic to make you sad about something, or afraid of something, or happy about something, whatever it is that they are specialized in.

On average how jaded would the people with this ability be? How often would they be surprised by emotional reactions outside of the very narrow window that they can read? There would be a range, and stereotypes, but also certain commonalities I think.