Customer Reviews

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction

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This book may not include everything you ever wanted to know about science fiction, but it definitely comes closer than any other work in existence. Long-time fans will enjoy the extensive analytical and bibliographical material. Beginners looking for a useful introduction to the genre are sure to find it here.

It's impossible to completely describe the contents within the space of a short review. However, a summary should be enough to give a general impression. There are (alphabetically-sorted) articles on all different aspects of the genre, from the cinema to the written word.

To start off, there are biographies on every major science fiction writer from the 19th century-1993, and almost all of the minor ones. These biographies, although of varying quality, are almost all of considerable interest. As well as listing all of the writer's major contributions to the genre, they often include analyses of the author's writing styles, including discussions of specific works. Although readers may find themselves disagreeing with some of the contributors, it is nonetheless fascinating to read the opinions of other devotees.

Perhaps just as important, there are many articles on the various science fiction magazines and their editors. Such articles are vital to any comprehensive discussion of the genre; after all science fiction started out in the magazines, and many fine stories are still published there. These articles include detailed and interesting descriptions of the magazines' histories, including editors, major contributors, and high and low points of success.

In addition to written fiction, considerable attention is paid to science fiction movies. There is little information on actors, directors, or screenwriters, but plenty about the movies themselves. Most major science fiction films have their own individual entries, including information on plot, acting, production quality. The authors always make clear whether or not they like each movie; their recommendations have led me to many good rentals!

Finally, there are many articles on the genre itself. Much attention is given to the history of the genre, from it's embryonic period in the 19th century, to it's consolidation in the 1920s, to it's maturation in the '40s, right on up to the '90s. There is also a great deal of information on specific subjects and items of terminology, from "Aliens" to "Cyberpunk" to "Spindizzies".

I can pick this Encyclopedia up any time, and be sure of finding something interesting. It's a surefire winner for anyone interested in random fact-finding. All SF fans, even if they're not "browsing" types, should still keep this tome on hand. Any question concerning the genre is likely to have an answer somewhere between the front and back covers.

No serious science fiction fan should be without this book. Since this book is filled with analyses of authors' works, it is SPOILER LADEN. So if you use it for reading suggestions (as I do), you must learn to read around the plot summaries. Caveat lector

Science fiction has long needed this comprehensive encyclopedia. Although the biographical details are necessarily short, and some of the entries border on the hopelessly opinionated, the authors provide an invaluable listing of almost every single author and subject in the genre. Particularly wonderful are the bibliographies of the complete books of each author; finally, a reader can know if he's read all of his favorite writer. It's not the kind of book one reads from cover to cover, but playing encyclopedia tag is wonderful fun; pick a page, read an entry, and then follow the references to other subjects until you get hopelessly, wonderfully lost! An excellent gift for any readers who are never without a science fiction book in their hands (and for whom you're afraid to buy something they have already read).

Along with its companion volume, "The Encyclopedia of Fantasy," the editors offer the most comprehensive references currently available on speculative fiction, covering authors both minor and major, discussion of the impact of writers and their works upon the genre, influences both obvious and obscure, as well as erudite observations upon the history and development of imaginative fiction. And this is but a fraction of all this marvelous reference has to offer! Indispensable to either the devotee of the genre or the casual reader, this text, along with its companion, should grace the shelves of anyone seriously interested in science fiction or literature. As with most references of this scope, already it is beginning to become out of date, lacking entries for newer and already significant authors, such as China Mieville, but one can hope a new edition will soon be in the offing. I know I will rush out to buy it, and in the meantime there is more than enough information here to occupy and entrance me for many months to come. If you read science fiction regularly, shame on you if you don't own this book.

A book that all serious sci-fi fans will find useful. An excellent reference text, it also does well for browsing - just flip open any page and you find something interesting, which will lead you on to something more interesting, and before you know it, hours have passed! Opinionated but always entertaining, the Encyclopaedia is definitely worth a buy. Warning - the binding is a tad flimsy though (or maybe it's all the abuse that my copy's been through)

Sometimes they do a book and just get everything right. Many reference works on Sci-fi are distressing by how much truly essential material is left out or ignored. Not this one. For instance, years ago I read an extremely early and very odd book by Philip K. Dick called THE COSMIC PUPPETS. Most Sci-fi reading guides or dictionaries or surveys omit this title, but not this one. I have a friend who is an exceptionally good mainstream novelist, Jack Butler, who usually publishes his highly praised and critically acclaimed works on publishers like Knopf or Penguin. But he also published on Atlantic Monthly Press what he intended as a straightforward Sci-fi novel in the grand tradition. Because Jack's reputation is as a mainstream writer and because it was published on a prestigious literary press, the novel was almost universally ignored by the Sci-fi community and Sci-fi reviewers (even when Gregory Benford wrote a review lavishing it with praise, it was published not in a Sci-fi mag but in the New York Times). But when you look Jack up here they not only have a listing, they recognize the book as the superb work it is and evince an understanding that its failure in the Sci-fi community stems from marketing errors.

What I like most about the book is its combination of balanced, critical judgment on the one hand with a careful thorough-goingness on the other. The work is too short to be completely exhaustive, but it is about a complete as a single-volume work of just under 1,400 pages can be. It is hard to imagine how they could have done a more thorough job than they did. The book is currently out of print, but anyone interested in Sci-fi should search out a copy. I might go so far as to say that if you can own only one Sci-fi reference book, this is the one you should own.

I have one tiny bone to pick with the volume and one big hope for the future. The hope first. It is now over a decade since the book was published and we have continued to be deluged with Sci-fi novels and movies and especially television shows. With some justification, the entries on pre-1995 television shows are either dismissive or belligerent. Most of the good Sci-fi ever done on television has been done since 1995. Book-wise, Sci-fi is as big business and mainstream as it has ever been. There is simply a big need for a completely up-to-date work. We can hope for an updated edition. Whether it is financially feasible is another matter, but I do hope that the step is taken at some point. And mind you, I want an updating of THIS work, not a new work by other editors. They did it right; we just need it updated.

The tiny bone is that I wish the volume had done a bit more in guiding readers to new authors. Some of the articles do a better job of summing up the career of a writer without letting the reader known precisely which books would be the most important to read. Perhaps they could have put an asterisk beside the most important titles. Some of the entries are phenomenal at letting readers know how to proceed, but it isn't carried consistently through the whole work. But this is a minor point. All in all this is an admirably compiled work. As I said, if you love Sci-fi, you need this book.

Like a lot of fiction genres, science fiction is a genre that I enjoy reading about more than reading within. I haven't read widely in it, but it's a recurring interest of mine. Some time ago now, I found a used copy of the 1995 paperback edition of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, by Clute and Nicholls (their names mean nothing to me - I have no idea who they are) and have been reading articles in it, according to whatever strikes me as interesting as I page sequentially through the volume.

This encyclopedia is an excellent reference. If you have an intellectual interest in, and certainly if you have an enthusiasm for, the genre of science fiction, you will find this to be valuable resource.