Customer Reviews

Encyclopedia of Fictional and Fantastic Languages

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The idea of an Encyclopedia of Fictional and Fantastic Languages is an excellent one, but not original. Such an encyclopedia already exists in Italian published in 1994 by Albani and Buanarotti as "Aga Magera Difura: Dizionario delle Lingue Imaginarie" (also translated into French) and there is of course also the wonderful "Dictionary of Imaginary Places" by Manguel and Guadalupi. Somehow I think it would have been better just to translate the work by Albani and Buanarotti, because this book is disappointing in almost all aspects.

First of all the choices of languages is highly suspect and one wonders whether the language of "Mork and Mindy" or "Tarzan of the Apes" should have been included, and then one notices that there are too many entries based on films or TV shows. Yes, I can agree with the language of "A Clockwork Orange" possibly being included or the languages of the Tolkien novels, but this book relies too much on what I would call barely developed languages where there are only a few unique words.

So we have dozens of languages that might have been better omitted in an "Encyclopedia" that is only 236 pages long including List of Entries, Guide to Related Topics, Foreword, Acknowledgements, Bibliography, and indices. This means that the entries are brief. Many entries are less than half a page long and this not exactly the format for describing something as complex as languages, many of which have their own writing systems. Most of the entries are not informative and most give only a single reference.

When the authors do encounter a language that is original, complex and incredible such as the language of the Codex Serpahinianus for example, the description is weak. One short paragraph long, no illustrations, no attempt at description and the only reference is the Codex itself. This is not exactly helpful.

In summary, what we have here is an overpriced slim volume posing as a dictionary with short entries, many of questionable value containing limited information, and a bibliography that lists only ten sources, half of which I would not have included. I should have given this book one star, but gave it two because of the idea. Now someone needs to expand on this and create a real Encyclopedia.

Review by Walter O. Koenig