Customer Reviews

The DICTIONARY OF SCIENCE FICTION PLACES

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a fairy nice book, and it's fun to look through (though I'm not sure I agree with all of the artist's interpretations) but I found it a little unsteady. I would invest in the excellent "The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction", it's more general but oddly, it's also more in depth.

I constantly find myself going back to this book and looking up odd facts about both books I have read and books I havent. This is a great book for any serious sciencefiction fan.!

This was a great idea; and to a certain extent, it is a well-executed one. Here is an alphabetical guide to science fictional settings, complete with excellent indexes that will aide you in finding the setting. Suppose that you don't remember the name of the planet in Jack Vance's _Son of the Tree_. A "Works Cited" index will quickly guide you to the entry for Kyril. There are famous places like Arrakis, Mesklin, Diaspar, Moderan, Helliconia, Big Planet, and Darkover. There are lesser known places like Chiron, Chronopolis, Sirene, Xanadu, Malacandra, Handrea, Enigma, and God-Does-Battle. There are utopias like Ecotopia, Ledom, Herland, and Mizora. There are buildings and artifacts like the Fire Station (from _Fahrenheit 451_), the White Hart, the Monarch Tower (from _The Demolished Man_), the Webster House (from _City_), and the Pyramid atop Mt. Everest (from _Wolfbane_). There is the mathematical world of the Planiverse. There are space habitats like Cay Habitat, the Brick Moon, Raft, Rama, and Retort City. Brian Stableford's entries balance knowledge of these settings with a sense of good fun.

The one problem that I had with the book were the illustrations by Jeff White. They are numerous enough. But they are also routine and uninspired. The field of science fiction has been a field where there has usually been at least a certain amount of dazzle in its illustrations, art that gives the reader a feel of viewing something rich and strange. And White's illustrations don't do that. So I am reluctantly forced to give this book a rating that falls short of the very best. But it is still a volumn that is worth having on your shelf-- if not on your coffee table.

The Dictionary of Science Fiction Places is near-completely useless if you use it the way it is intended - to develop your vision and understanding of a specific scientific locale. I can certainly say that the odds of you reading something that is described in the book are slim to nil (outside the obvious entries, like Pern, which was perfectly mapped out a long time prior). The art is completely inappropriate and does exactly nothing for the book's value. The only way the Dictionary of Science Fiction Places may prove useful is if you casually flip through it to find some long out of print and offbeat works of science fiction.