Wikipedia

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction

For similarly-titled works, seeEncyclopedia of Science Fiction.

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction(SFE) is an English languagereference workonscience fiction,first published in 1979. It has won theHugo,LocusandBritish SFAwards. Two print editions appeared in 1979 and 1993. A third, continuously revised, edition was published online from 2011; a change of web host was announced as the launch of a fourth edition in 2021.

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
Cover of the original 1979 edition
Cover of the first edition
EditorPeter Nicholls,John Clute;
David Langfordfrom 2011
LanguageEnglish
SubjectScience fiction
Publisher
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Media type
  • Print (1979, 1993, 1995, 1999)
  • CD-ROM (1995)
  • Online(2011)
Pages
  • 672 pp, 1979
  • 1370 pp, 1993
  • 1386 pp, 1995
  • 1396 pp, 1999
OCLC365133329
809.3876203
LC ClassPN3433.4

History

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Malcolm Edwards, John Clute and Peter Nicholls discussing the early days ofThe Encyclopedia of Science FictionatLoncon 3,Worldcon2014

First edition

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The first edition, edited byPeter NichollswithJohn Clute,[1]was published byGranadain 1979. It was retitledThe Science Fiction Encyclopediawhen published byDoubledayin the United States. Accompanying its text were numerous black and white photographs illustrating authors, book and magazine covers, film and TV stills, and examples of artists' work.[2]

Second edition

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A second edition, jointly edited by Nicholls and Clute, was published in 1993 byOrbitin the UK andSt. Martin's Pressin the US. The second edition contained 1.3 million words, almost twice the 700,000 words of the 1979 edition.[3]The 1995 paperback edition included a sixteen-pageaddendum(dated "7 August 1995" ). Unlike the first edition, the print versions did not contain illustrations. There was also a CD-ROM version in 1995, styled variously asThe Multimedia Encyclopedia of Science FictionandGrolier Science Fiction.[4]This contained text updates through 1995, hundreds of book covers and author photos, a small number of old film trailers, and author video clips taken from theTVOntarioseriesPrisoners of Gravity.

The companion volume, published after the second print edition and following its format closely, isThe Encyclopedia of Fantasyedited by John Clute andJohn Grant.[4]

Third edition

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In July 2011,Orion Publishing Groupannounced that the third edition ofThe Science Fiction Encyclopediawould be released online later that year by SFE Ltd in association withVictor Gollancz,Orion's science fiction imprint. The "beta text" of the third edition launched online on 2 October 2011,[5]with editors John Clute,David Langford,Peter Nicholls (as editor emeritus until his death in 2018) and Graham Sleight.

The encyclopedia is updated regularly (usually several times a week) by the editorial team with material written by themselves and contributed by science fiction academics and experts.[1]It received theHugo Award for Best Related Workin 2012. Though theSFEis a composite work with a considerable number of contributors, the three main editors (Clute, Langford and Nicholls) have themselves written almost two-thirds of the 5.2 million words to date (September 2016), giving a sense of unity to the whole.[4]

Fourth edition

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TheEncyclopediaended its arrangement with Orion on 29 September 2021 and moved to a new, self-owned web server. The move was completed by 6 October 2021, and announced as the launch of the fourth edition. While based on the earlier design, the new edition incorporates a number of revisions; for instance, many author entries now include thumbnails of the author's book covers, randomly selected from the relevant Gallery pages.[6]

Contents

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The Encyclopedia of Science Fictioncontains entries under the categories of authors, themes, terminology, science fiction in various countries, films, filmmakers, television, magazines, fanzines, comics, illustrators, book publishers, original anthologies, awards, and miscellaneous.[7]

The online edition ofThe Encyclopedia of Science Fictionwas released in October 2011 with 12,230 entries, totaling 3,200,000 words. The editors predicted that it would contain 4,000,000 words upon completion of the first round of updates at the end of 2012; this figure was actually reached in January 2013, and 5,000,000 words in November 2015.[8]

Reception

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WriterIan Watsonreviewed the first edition in 1980, the journalFoundation.Watson noted his positive surprise that the publication contains much smaller amount of errors than expected, and noted that its format allows for easy correction of those in the expected second edition. He concluded that the "volumeisa genuine encyclopedia - the first such. It is theBritannicaof the sf field ", positively commenting on the breadth and scope of the entries, and even the illustrations, which are informative, and not just decorations.[9]

Edward James,a British scholar of medieval history and science fiction, praised the second edition of the encyclopedia in his review (also for the journalFoundation) in 1993, writing that it is "the one indispensable volume on every sf readers' shelf: not only the best reference work in the field, but one of the best reference works I have seen in ''any'' field". He did, however, found the "sneering" tone of some film entries (de facto film reviews) less than ideal for an encyclopedia. James also noted that although the project is a collaborative effort, nearly half of the entries for that edition have been written by Clute, which he saw as a very impressive achievement on his part.[2]

WriterGary Westfahlalso reviewed the second edition, for the journalExtrapolation.He called it "an invaluable compendium of and contribution to fifty years of science fiction research", representing "a true conceptual breakthrough" for the field ofscience fiction studies,and noted that even more than the encyclopedia's previous edition, this one "is the one essential reference book for anyone interested in science fiction". He also predicted that "this work will justifiably be cited in all studies of science fiction during the next decade, and those studies will be significantly better because of Clute and Nicholl's painstaking work". Nonetheless he noted that the volume is not perfect, and contains some errors as well as several entries on novel topics that could use more grounding in prior research before being written about in an encyclopedia ".[10]

Nicholas Ruddickbriefly commented on the second edition, noting that it has been "highly praised".[11]

Briefly commenting on the third edition,Andrew M. Butlercalled it "a gold standard for reference works in the field".[12]

The encyclopedia also received several other reviews, by writers and scholars such asGary K. Wolfe,Don D'AmmassaandDavid G. Hartwell.[13]

Awards

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Edition Awards[14]
1st ed. (1979) Hugo Awardfor Best Non-Fiction Book
Locus Awardfor Best Related Non-Fiction
2nd ed. (1993) Hugo Awardfor Best Non-Fiction Book
Locus Awardfor Best Non-Fiction
BSFA Award(Special Award)
3rd ed. (2011) Hugo Awardfor Best Related Work
BSFA Awardfor Best Non-Fiction

Publications

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  • First edition:
    • Nicholls, Peter, ed. (1979).The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction: An Illustrated A to Z.St Albans, Herts, UK: Granada Publishing Ltd.ISBN978-0-246-11020-6.672 pp.[15]
  • Second edition:
    • Clute, John; Nicholls, Peter, eds. (1993).The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction(2nd ed.). London: Orbit Books.ISBN978-1-85723-124-3.xxxvi + 1370 pp.[13]
    • Clute, John; Nicholls, Peter, eds. (1995).The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction(2nd ed.). New York: St. Martin's Press.ISBN978-0-312-13486-0.xxxvi + 1386 pp.[13]
    • Clute, John; Nicholls, Peter, eds. (1995).The Multimedia Encyclopedia of Science Fiction(CD-ROM) (2nd ed.). Danbury, CT: Grolier Science Fiction.ISBN978-0-7172-3999-3.[13]
    • Clute, John; Nicholls, Peter, eds. (1999).The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction(2nd ed.). London: Orbit Books.ISBN978-1-85723-897-6.xxxvi + 1396 pp.[13]
  • Third edition:
    • Clute, John; Langford, David; Nicholls, Peter; Sleight, Graham, eds. (2011).The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction(3rd ed.). London: Gollancz. Archived from the original on 19 December 2011.
  • Fourth edition:

See also

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References

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  1. ^abDebnath, Neela."'The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction' makes internet debut ".The Independent Blogs.Archived fromthe originalon 6 July 2015.
  2. ^ab James, Edward(1993)."Review: John Clute and Peter Nicholls, eds. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction".Foundation.58:100–103.
  3. ^Fox, Rose (6 July 2011)."Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Goes Digital, Searchable, and Free".Publishers Weekly Blog.Archived fromthe originalon 7 July 2011.
  4. ^abc Nicoll, James Davis(10 April 2020)."All Hail The Science Fiction Encyclopedia, Bringer of Knowledge!".Tor.Macmillan.
  5. ^ "SFE Beta Text launches".The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.2 October 2011.Retrieved17 April2013.
  6. ^ Glyer, Mike(6 October 2021)."New Publisher and Other Changes Herald Encyclopedia of Science Fiction's Fourth Edition".File 770.
  7. ^ "Notes on Content".The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.3 January 2013.Retrieved17 April2013.
  8. ^ "Introduction to the Third Edition".The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.14 March 2013.Retrieved17 April2013.
  9. ^Watson, Ian (1980).""The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction" ed. Peter Nicholls and John Clute (Book Review) "(PDF).Foundation.18:103–105.
  10. ^Westfahl, Gary (1994)."CLUTE, JOHN and PETER NICHOLS, eds., The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (Book Review)".Extrapolation.35(1):77–80.doi:10.3828/extr.1994.35.1.77.ProQuest1304228458.
  11. ^Ruddick, Nicholas (1996)."Review of Science Fiction: The Illustrated Encyclopedia".Utopian Studies.7(2):241–243.ISSN1045-991X.JSTOR20719532.
  12. ^Butler, Andrew M. (28 November 2013)."Science Fiction Criticism".In Hubble, Nick; Mousoutzanis, Aris (eds.).The Science Fiction Handbook.A&C Black. p. 173.ISBN978-1-4725-3897-0.
  13. ^abcde The Encyclopedia of Science Fictiontitle listing at theInternet Speculative Fiction Database(ISFDB). Retrieved 2013-04-17.
  14. ^ "Peter Nicholls Awards".Science Fiction Awards Database.Locus Science Fiction Foundation.Retrieved9 September2021.
  15. ^The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction: An Illustrated A to ZArchived8 March 2018 at theWayback Machinetitle listing. ISFDB. Retrieved 2013-04-17.
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