Update on the new Encyclopedia of Science Fiction

Way back in 1979, SF critics and editors Peter Nicholls and John Clute released the first edition of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Weighing in at 730,000 words, it was the most authoritative reference work about science fiction ever published. The second edition of the book was released in 1993, clocking in at 1.3 million words and well over a thousand pages of tiny type, and was of a size and weight that would enable it to double as siege weapon with no major problems.

The 1993 second edition.

The third edition was announced several years ago as being a dual project, with a physical copy and also a constantly-updated online incarnation both in the offing. However, the size of the project now seems to have outstretched the abilities of physical binding science, with Orbit amicably parting ways with the editors of the new edition, who have mysteriously revealed they now have 'enthusiastic new backers' from 'outside the conventional publishing world'. Intriguing.

The size of the new book has now been revealed as a slightly staggering 2.465 million words clocking in at over 10,000 entries (compared to 6,571 in the 1993 second edition). 'Exhaustive' and 'definitive' would appear to be what the editors are going for here. Interesting to see when it finally arrives. Whereupon, no doubt, they'll be asked if they're going to do the same thing for a new edition of The Encyclopedia of Fantasy (the 1996 first edition of which is probably still the most definitive overview of the genre, despite now being badly outdated).

The Gollancz Party 2009

For the third year running, I attended the Gollancz Autumn Party in London last night. Whilst the party is arranged by Gollancz, they tend to have a fair number of other publishers and authors along as well, and it's a great opportunity to meet people and authors and get the latest gossip.

James from Speculative Horizons, me and Graeme from his Fantasy Book Review.

Of course, the nature of these things is that a lot of stuff is said 'off the record', so there are some limits on what I can report. I met Peter F. Hamilton for the first time, and he reported that The Evolutionary Void will hopefully be finished by Christmas and released next year, and is already looking at the projects to follow on from that. He is very happy that the new American editions of the Night's Dawn Trilogy are in three volumes rather than six, as apparently convincing booksellers to keep six books on the shelf simultaneously is much harder than a trilogy. He was a good guy to talk to as well.

I also grabbed a chat with Rob Grant, author of the extremely funny Colony, Incompitence and Fat and co-creator of Red Dwarf. He's working on a new novel and is apparently in talks to have Incompitence turned into a stage play (in Switzerland, if I recall correctly), which is quite ambitious as anyone's who read the book will agree.

I also spoke to Robert Holdstock, appropriate having just read Mythago Wood and ploughing through the dense-but-rewarding semi-sequel Lavondyss at the moment. I hadn't realised before a few days ago that Robert was also the author of The Dark Wheel, the novella that accompanied the original release of the all-time classic computer game Elite, released in 1984, so we had a good chat about that. His next book will be a follow-up to his recently-released Avilion. I also got a chance to meet legendary SF critic David Langford for the first time, who was a great guy and very funny.

Chris Wooding, James and myself in a London holstery.

I also touched base with some other authors I'd met before: Joe Abercrombie, Alex Bell, Tom Lloyd, Adam Roberts (basking in the afterglow of not being nominated for the Booker Prize) and Chris Wooding, plus some of the reviewers and editorial teams from DeathRay and SFX magazines.

There was a bit of a blogger's mini-convention going on, with MinDonner from Sandstorm Reviews, James from Speculative Horizons, Graeme from Graeme's Fantasy Book Review, Gav from NextRead and Liz and Mark from My Favourite Books all in attendance.

All in all, a good time was had, much alcohol was drunk, and 2010 looks like being a great year for SF&F releases from Gollancz and the other British genre publishers.

David Langford's Top 20 Pre-1990 Genre Novels

I discovered (or rediscovered) this list a while back. It was compiled by multi-Hugo-winning SF&F critic David Langford back in 2002 for an SFX special. Working on the basis that it takes a decade for a book to proves its classic status, he decided to only go up to works published in 1989 to compile the list.

The Top Twenty
20. Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett
19. Gateway by Frederick Pohl
18. Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks
17. Cyteen by C.J. Cherryh
16. Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart
15. The Affirmation by Christopher Priest
14. Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
13. The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick
12. The Owl Service by Alan Garner
11. The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
10. Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys
09. Blood Music by Greg Bear
08. Dune by Frank Herbert
07. Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake
06. Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin
05. Pavane by Keith Roberts
04. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
03. The City and the Stars by Arthur C. Clarke
02. Little, Big by John Crowley
01. The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe

Bubbling Under
Helliconia Spring by Brian W. Aldiss
The Shockwave Rider by John Brunner
The Infernal Desire Machines of Dr. Hoffman by Angela Carter
The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton
The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delaney
Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock
Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. LeGuin
A Wreath of Stars by Bob Shaw

Short Story Collections
The Wallet of Kai Lung by Ernet Bramah
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
The Exploits of Engelbrecht by Maurice Richardson
The Dying Earth by Jack Vance
The Terminal Beach by J.G. Ballard
Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino
Neutron Star by Larry Niven
Nine Hundred Grandmothers by R.A. Lafferty
Deathbird Stories by Harlan Ellison
The Rediscovery of Man by Cordwainer Smith

Ten of the Worst
Ralph 124C41+ by Hugo Gernsback
They'd Rather Be Right by Mark Clifton and Frank Riley
March of the Robots by Rev. Lionel Fanthorpe (writing as Leo Brett)
The Number of the Beast by Robert Heinlein
Battlefield Earth by L. Ron Hubbard
O-Zone by Paul Theorux
The Troglodytes by Nal Rafcam
The Eye of Argon by Jim Theis
The Black Star by Lin Carter
Flight by Vanna Bonta

The original link also contains rationales for the choices, explanations for some notable missing books (Langford considers the original Hyperion Cantos to be one long novel, so he seems to have ruled Hyperion ineligible despite just scraping in before the date), some other books he rates between 1990 and 2002 and so on.

I quite like the lists. Giving a work some time before proclaiming it 'the greatest thing ever' makes sense.

For an alternative list, check out Stego's list of his top 100 books here.