From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cover of the second edition

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction is a reference work on science fiction.

The first edition, edited by Peter Nicholls with John Clute and Brian Stableford appeared in 1979. It was retitled The Science Fiction Encyclopedia in the US.

A greatly expanded second edition, jointly edited by Nicholls and Clute, did not appear until 1993. The paperback edition included an addendum, and 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.

Currently, all print and CD-ROM editions are out of print. It has been announced that future editions will be available exclusively online (the third edition [1] is expected in late 2008 or early 2009). The companion volume is The Encyclopedia of Fantasy.

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction consists of several different categories:

• 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, over 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. certain fanzines are listed.
• Comics. Entries here not only consist of various science fiction comics, but also of some 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.^{[citation needed]}
• Book publishers. Existing and historical science fiction publishers have their own entries. There are also several 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.
• Miscellaneous. Some 30 entries that didn't fit elsewhere, including on science fiction organisations, collections, publishing formats and even some character entries.

Both the first and the second edition were awarded the Hugo Award for Best Non-Fiction Book, in 1980 and 1994 respectively.

• The Encyclopedia of Fantasy

• 1993 SF Encyclopedia Updates - updates to the second edition
• SFE Home Page - web page of the editorial team of the third edition