The Encyclopedia of 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 edited by Nicholls and Clute did not appear until 1993. The paperback edition included an addendum. Currently, it is out of print. A third edition is hoped for, although there has been no official announcement.

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction consists of several different categories:

• Author entries, including entries on writers who have written about sf or whose ideas fed into the genre
• Theme entries, on subjects often encountered in sf, e.g. telepathy or robots, but also entries about sf itself (like the history of science fiction)
• Terminology entries, similar to theme entries, explaining common words used in sf (e.g. ion drive) as well as terms used to describe sf (e.g. heroic fantasy)
• Science fiction in various countries, entries that describre science fiction in the non-English speaking world
• Films. While the focus of the encyclopedia lies with written science fiction, the more important sf films have been included as well; over 500 films are mentioned in the 1992 hardcover edition
• Television. As with films, only the most important tv series of science fiction interest have been including, leading to roughly 100 entries.
• Magazines. This includes the science fiction magazines, but also those pulp magazines that regularly featured sf content and academic magazines about sf.
• Fanzines. The more important sf fanzines are listed.
• Comics. Entries here not only consist of various sf comicss, but also of some publishers, writers and artists of interest.
• Illustrators. These entries only contain artists whose work is most closely associated with the sf genre, mostly book or magazine illustrators.
• Book publishers. All the important then existing and historical sf publishers have their own entries. There are also several theme entries about publishing.
• Original anthologies. The most important and influential original anthology series are given their own entries.
• Awards. The most important sf 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 sf organisations, collections, publishing formats and even some character entries.
  

  See also

  The Encyclopedia of Fantasy

  External links

• A list of updates The most popular version is the version on CD-ROM.