The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction is the John Clute, Peter Nicholls, and David Langford-edited reference work that has been the canonical SF resource since its 1979 first edition, through the much-expanded 1993 second edition, and into the continuously-updated online third edition that is the current authoritative version. The work established the working scholarly vocabulary that the SF field has been using for a generation: the entries on the field's major writers, themes, and historical movements remain the field's primary critical reference.

Clute and Nicholls's strength in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction is the unusually opinionated entries. The work is not a neutral catalog. Clute in particular is willing to make explicit aesthetic judgments about a writer's significance that most encyclopedias prefer to leave implicit. The taxonomic vocabulary the editors introduced (slipstream, the singularity, the cyborg, the Equipoise) has become standard analytical language in SF criticism. Fans of Brian Aldiss's Trillion Year Spree or Adam Roberts's The History of Science Fiction will recognize the careful critical tradition the Encyclopedia is operating in.

The print second edition is now dated in places. The online third edition is continuously updated and is the current canonical reference.

Five stars. The right starting point for anyone studying SF as a literary tradition. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction John Clute reference is the companion to The Encyclopedia of Fantasy (same editorial team, same standards). Recommended without reservation as a working reference and as a sustained piece of genre criticism.