The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction is an English language reference work on science fiction. Since October 2011 the 3rd edition is available online for free.[1]
Publication history
The first edition, edited by Peter Nicholls with John Clute and Brian Stableford appeared in 1979, published by Granada. It was retitled The Science Fiction Encyclopedia in the US when published by Doubleday. Accompanying its text were numerous black and white photographs illustrating authors, book and magazine covers, film and TV stills, and examples of artists' work.
A greatly expanded second edition, jointly edited by Nicholls and Clute, did not appear until 1993, published by Orbit in the UK and St. Martin's Press in the US. The paperback edition included an addendum. Unlike the first edition, the print versions did not contain illustrations. The CD-ROM version, styled variously as The Multimedia Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Grolier Science Fiction, contained text updates through 1995, hundreds of book covers and author photos, and author video clips taken from the TVOntario series Prisoners of Gravity. This CD will not run by itself under Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows Vista, but needs Windows 9x versions (Windows 95, Windows 98 or Windows ME), or an Apple computer. Contributing editor David Langford built his own frontend on the data from the CD-ROM,[2] so Linux and modern Windows users can still have access to the CD multi-media experience.
All print and CD-ROM editions are out of print. It was announced in 2005 that future editions will be available exclusively online, with publication then expected in 2007.[3] In July 2011, Orion Publishing Group announced that the third edition would be released online later that year by ESF Ltd in association with Victor Gollancz, Orion's science fiction imprint.[4] The "beta text" of the third edition launched on-line on 3 October 2011.[5]
The companion volume (published after the second print edition, whose format it follows closely) is The Encyclopedia of Fantasy.
In October 2, 2011 the 3rd edition of the Encyclopedia has been published online in "beta version" and it is freely available.[1]
Contents
The work has different types of entries:
- Author entries, including entries on writers who have written about science fiction or whose ideas fed into the genre
- Theme entries, on subjects often encountered in science fiction, e.g. telepathy or robots, but also entries about science fiction itself (like the history of science fiction)
- Terminology entries, similar to theme entries, explaining common words used in science fiction (e.g. ion drive) as well as terms used to describe science fiction
- Science fiction in various countries, entries that describe science fiction in the non-English speaking world
- Films. While the focus of the encyclopedia lies with written science fiction, 500 films are mentioned in the 1992 hardcover edition
- Television. Roughly 100 entries about TV series of science fiction interest have been included
- Magazines. This includes the science fiction magazines, but also those pulp magazines that regularly featured sf content and academic magazines about science fiction.
- Fanzines.
- Comics. Entries have science fiction comics, publishers, writers and artists.
- Illustrators. These entries only contain artists whose work is most closely associated with the science fiction genre, mostly book or magazine illustrators.[6]
- Book publishers. Present and past science fiction publishers have their own entries. There are theme entries about publishing.
- Original anthologies. Some original anthology series are given their own entries.
- Awards. Certain science fiction awards have their own entries and there is also a more general entry on them.
- Games. The 3rd edition adds coverage of science fiction games, with entries given to gamebooks, role-playing, board, card, war and video games.
- Miscellaneous. Some 30 entries that did not fit elsewhere, including on science fiction organisations, collections, publishing formats and even some character entries.
The first edition of the encyclopedia was awarded the 1980 Hugo Award for Best Non-Fiction Book, and the second edition awarded the Hugo in 1994.[7]
See also
References
Bibliography
- Clute, John; Nicholls, Peter (1993). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. London: Orbit Books. pp. 1200. ISBN 978-1857231243.
- Clute, John; Nicholls, Peter (1995). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. New York: St. Martin's Press. pp. 1386. ISBN 0-312134-86-X.
- Clute, John; Nicholls, Peter (1995). The Multimedia Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Danbury, CT: Grolier. pp. CD–ROM. ISBN 0-7172-3999-3.
- Clute, John; Nicholls, Peter (1999). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. London: Orbit Books. pp. 1408. ISBN 978-1857238976.
- Nicholls, Peter (1979). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. St Albans, Herts, UK: Granada Publishing Ltd.. pp. 672. ISBN 0-586-05380-8.
External links