This Paperback Book item from Orbit was reviewed on 16-Oct-2008.
Search ISBN:1857238974 offer from Abebooks or used books from Alibris. New Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Reference Book. Classifications : General AAS General Literature & Fiction Subjects Books General AAS Literature & Fiction Subjects Books Science Fiction & Fantasy Encyclopedias Reference Subjects Books Paperback Mass Market Trade Bin . Click the following link to view the cover of New Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Related topics: General AAS. General. Subjects. Books. General AAS. Subjects. Books. Encyclopedias. Reference. Subjects. requestid: d58177ec-b3f9-42f6-8feb-03d2854a4ca8
requestprocessingtime: 0.2164690000000000
salesrank: 1074352
packagedimensions: 276961538748
1) Paperback Book New Encyclopedia of Science Fiction by Orbit. Clute and Nicholls have produced a masterful piece of work here, the breadth and detail is immense, and even includes errata and other information at the end. An amazing treasure trove of information and is something I have found myself using many, many times this year, having gone through it from cover to cover. If you see one lying around at what looks like a decent price, get it without hesitation!
You could also use it to bludgeon camels.¤ 2) Paperback Book New Encyclopedia of Science Fiction by Orbit. 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.¤ 3) Paperback Book New Encyclopedia of Science Fiction by Orbit. This is a book beyond all expectations. It is thoughtful, detailed, deep, and enlightening. It is truly encyclopedic. SF as a genre had no right to expect such an asset to materialize. But it did, and we all gained something from it, if we loved SF and read any part of this spectacular work.
But...
It came out in 1993. SF is a young field. Where´s the 2005 edition? Where are the continuing updates that should be available by subscription? Where´s the sense of _community_ that is the distinguishing element of SF from all other genres?
It´s a five-star work, no question. But, as a reference text, it is already obsolete, and will grow ever more so as the future unfolds. Will C&N write another? Can anyone else? I hope so, to either or both of those questions.¤ 4) Paperback Book New Encyclopedia of Science Fiction by Orbit. This is a massive reference work and an obvious labor of love. It covers almost every conceivable aspect of science fiction, from movies to history to criticism. This is the second edition of this work, with large updates to bring the work up to the time of publication (1992), especially new authors and newer works by old hands, and there has also been a good deal of new material added to the thematic sections. For anyone wanting to develop a good course on science fiction , or anyone interested in how SF came to be what it is today, a perusal of these thematic entries on everything from ANTIGRAVITY to MUTANTS to UTOPIAS will yield a wealth of material concisely presented, profusely cross-referenced, and source material properly indicated. Often within these sections even an experienced long-time fan of the field will find works referenced that he hasn´t heard of before but deserve a look. Within the author entries you will find one of the works most useful features: a listing of all of that author´s works that belong within a given series or author created world/universe, often with a good description of the salient features of these author worlds. Also very useful is a listing of all known pseudonyms for each author. Still another useful feature is the indication of every variant title a work has appeared under, which can end up saving the reader money by knowing that he already really has that title under a different name. But these entries are also the most problematic of the information presented in this volume, as the opinion of the writer of the piece (almost all of the author entries were done by John Clute) about the quality of each of the author´s works clearly shows. While it is probably impossible to avoid having this type of opinion appear, what I found disappointing was the lack of indication that there are other opinions about some well known works (in some cases these other opinions run to millions of words and many a flame war on the internet), such as Heinlein´s Starship Troopers. At the same time, these entries provide a wealth of biographical information and very complete bibliographies for every major and almost every minor writer who has ever written within the field, and this information seems to have been very solidly researched (at least I haven´t been able to find any obvious errors, and I´ve been reading in the field for 40 years). This is an expensive volume, but it is probably worth every penny of its price when you consider that it collects in one volume such a wealth of diverse information that prior to this work was scattered across hundreds of articles, essays, books, and research papers or had never been written about in any cohesive manner. Highly recommended for any serious student/fan of the field, and highly entertaining and informative reading for just about anyone.¤ 5) Paperback Book New Encyclopedia of Science Fiction by Orbit. 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.¤ 6) Paperback Book New Encyclopedia of Science Fiction by Orbit. The first edition of this encyclopaedia was published in 1979. This edition, now available in paperback, is intended to be more than a simple updating. The world of science fiction in the 1990s is much more complex than it was in the 1970s. The advent of game worlds, shared worlds, graphic novels, film and television spin-offs, technothrillers, sf horror and others has meant that the book has been expanded dramatically to cope with the complexities and changes in the genre. It contains well over 4300 entries - 1500 more than the original - and, at 1.3 million words, is over half a million words longer than the first edition.¤ 7) Paperback Book New Encyclopedia of Science Fiction by Orbit. Did your last con visit leave you feeling out of touch? Was the latest issue of Locus full of unfamiliar writers? Or are you looking for a definitive analysis of the role of eschatology in science fiction? Look no further. You can find all the help you need, and the answers to questions you didn´t even know you wanted to ask, in John Clute and Peter Nicholls´s invaluable reference work, The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. In the introduction, Clute and Nicholls write, "We see this book as more than merely an encyclopedia of sf; it is a comprehensive history and analysis of the genre." With over 4,360 entries and 1,300,000 words, this is a jam-packed sourcebook on science fiction authors, books, subgenres, movements, and history. You can live without it, but why would you want to? It´s got riveting trivia on every page, hours of browsing enjoyment, and endless potential for playing spot-the-error, a game popular among science fiction writers and fans. Clute and Nicholls have put together an admirable, ever-improving encyclopedia that tries to encompass a genre that grows new pseudopods every year. This is a great resource for fans and writers. Those with a yen for a more visual approach might appreciate Clute´s Science Fiction: The Illustrated Encyclopedia, and fantasy readers and writers should definitely check out The Encyclopedia of Fantasy when the new edition is published early in 1999. --Therese Littleton¤ Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 13-Nov-2008, 18572389749781857238976, 760-750-510-621-031-741-8 
New Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Book, Image © Orbit
|
