''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'' (SFE) is an English language

reference work A reference work is a work, such as a paper, book or periodical (or their electronic equivalents), to which one can refer for information. The information is intended to be found quickly when needed. Such works are usually ''referred'' to ...

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

, first published in 1979. It has won the Hugo, Locus and British SF Awards. Two print editions appeared in 1979 and 1993. A third, continuously revised, edition was published online from 2011; a change of web host was announced as the launch of a fourth edition in 2021.

History

The first edition, edited by Peter Nicholls with

John Clute John Frederick Clute (born 12 September 1940) is a Canadian-born author and critic specializing in science fiction and fantasy literature who has lived in both England and the United States since 1969. He has been described as "an integral part ...

, was published by

Granada Granada (,, DIN: ; grc, Ἐλιβύργη, Elibýrgē; la, Illiberis or . ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the c ...

in 1979. It was retitled ''The Science Fiction Encyclopedia'' when published by Doubleday in the United States. Accompanying its text were numerous black and white photographs illustrating authors, book and magazine covers, film and TV stills, and examples of artists' work. A second edition, jointly edited by Nicholls and Clute, was published in 1993 by

Orbit In celestial mechanics, an orbit is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an object or position in space such as ...

in the UK and St. Martin's Press in the US. The second edition contained 1.3 million words, almost twice the 700,000 words of the 1979 edition. The 1995 paperback edition included a sixteen-page

addendum An addendum or appendix, in general, is an addition required to be made to a document by its author subsequent to its printing or publication. It comes from the gerundive , plural , "that which is to be added," from (, compare with memorandum ...

(dated "7 August 1995"). Unlike the first edition, the print versions did not contain illustrations. There was also a CD-ROM version in 1995, styled variously as ''The Multimedia Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'' and ''Grolier Science Fiction''. This contained text updates through 1995, hundreds of book covers and author photos, a small number of old film trailers, and author video clips taken from the

TVOntario TVO Media Education Group (often abbreviated as TVO and stylized on-air as tvo) is a publicly funded English-language educational television network and media organization serving the Canadian province of Ontario. It is operated by the Ontario ...

series ''

Prisoners of Gravity ''Prisoners of Gravity'' was a Canadian television news magazine program. Produced by TVOntario, the show was created by Mark Askwith and Daniel Richler, and was hosted by Rick Green. The series aired 139 episodes over five seasons from 1989 to 199 ...

''. The companion volume, published after the second print edition and following its format closely, is ''

The Encyclopedia of Fantasy ''The Encyclopedia of Fantasy'' is a 1997 reference work concerning fantasy fiction, edited by John Clute and John Grant. Other contributors include Mike Ashley, Neil Gaiman, Diana Wynne Jones, David Langford, Sam J. Lundwall, Michael S ...

'' edited by John Clute and John Grant. All print and CD-ROM editions are currently out of print. In July 2011,

Orion Publishing Group Orion Publishing Group Ltd. is a UK-based book publisher. It was founded in 1991 and acquired Weidenfeld & Nicolson the following year. The group has published numerous bestselling books by notable authors including Ian Rankin, Michael Connell ...

announced that the third edition of ''The Science Fiction Encyclopedia'' would be released online later that year by SFE Ltd in association with

Victor Gollancz Sir Victor Gollancz (; 9 April 1893 – 8 February 1967) was a British publisher and humanitarian. Gollancz was known as a supporter of left-wing causes. His loyalties shifted between liberalism and communism, but he defined himself as a Chris ...

, Orion's science fiction imprint. The "beta text" of the third edition launched online on 2 October 2011, with editors John Clute,

David Langford David Rowland Langford (born 10 April 1953) is a British author, editor, and critic, largely active within the science fiction field. He publishes the science fiction fanzine and newsletter ''Ansible'', and holds the all-time record for most ...

, Peter Nicholls (as editor emeritus until his death in 2018) and Graham Sleight. The encyclopedia is updated regularly (usually several times a week) by the editorial team with material written by themselves and contributed by science fiction academics and experts. It received the

Hugo Award for Best Related Work The Hugo Award for Best Related Work is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for primarily non-fiction works related to science fiction or fantasy, published or translated into English during the previous calendar year. The Hugo Awards have bee ...

in 2012. Though the ''SFE'' is a composite work with a considerable number of contributors, the three main editors (Clute, Langford and Nicholls) have themselves written almost two-thirds of the 5.2 million words to date (September 2016), giving a sense of unity to the whole. The ''Encyclopedia'' ended its arrangement with Orion on 29 September 2021 and moved to a new, self-owned web server. The move was completed by 6 October 2021, and announced as the launch of the fourth edition. While based on the earlier design, the new edition incorporates a number of revisions; for instance, many author entries now include thumbnails of the author's book covers, randomly selected from the relevant Gallery pages.

''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'' contains entries under the categories of authors, themes, terminology, science fiction in various countries, films, filmmakers, television, magazines, fanzines, comics, illustrators, book publishers, original anthologies, awards, and miscellaneous. The online edition of ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'' was released in October 2011 with 12,230 entries, totaling 3,200,000 words. The editors predicted that it would contain 4,000,000 words upon completion of the first round of updates at the end of 2012; this figure was actually reached in January 2013, and 5,000,000 words in November 2015.

Awards

Publications

* First edition: ** 672 pp. * Second edition: ** xxxvi + 1370 pp. ** xxxvi + 1386 pp. ** ** xxxvi + 1396 pp. * Third edition: ** * Fourth edition: **

References

External links

SFE: ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction''
2014—current online edition
Self-referential entry on the ''Encyclopedia''
written by

''SF Encyclopedia'' Editorial Home
(sf-encyclopedia.co.uk)—with data on multiple editions
"Formats and Editions of ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction''
at

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...

1993 ''SF Encyclopedia'' Updates
��"New Data, Typographical Errors, Factual Corrections, and Miscellanea; Last updated September 2002"—superseded by the 2011 edition *
"Q&A with the Founder of ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction''
''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

'', 12 January 2012—Neela Debnath with Peter Nicholls {{DEFAULTSORT:Encyclopedia Of Science Fiction Encyclopedias of literature British encyclopedias Online encyclopedias 20th-century encyclopedias Science fiction books Science fiction studies Hugo Award for Best Non-Fiction Book winning works Hugo Award for Best Related Work-winning works 1979 non-fiction books 1993 non-fiction books British online encyclopedias

History

Contents

Awards

Publications

See also

References

External links