Oh dear! Didn't you get a sinking feeling that when you learned he was going to produce an encyclopedia of his imaginary world? Didn't the canary start coughing then and there? But, no, you had to proceed down the gaseous, unstable mineshaft anyway...

I think any fantasy author these days, once they get even a small following, starts getting badgered to do an encyclopedia of their setting; I don't immediately disown those who do them (or give their blessings to such things), because I can see the appeal of taking your notes, putting them in a hardcover books and selling them to starry-eyed fans at a premium: it's money for nothing, and if it means the author takes the excessive exposition and needless worldbuilding out of the novels and puts it in the encyclopedia instead that's even better. The disappointing thing is that Erikson wants to have the exposition in both the novels and the encyclopedia.