Science Fiction Literature Through History: An Encyclopedia

Westfahl (literature, Univ. of La Verne, CA; editor of The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy) has written widely on science fiction, but his new guide consists of totally new content, beginning with a series of historical essays putting the genre in perspective—from “Science Fiction in the Ancient World and the Middle Ages” to “Science Fiction in the Twenty-First Century.” These are followed by thematic essays about the natural sciences and science fiction; literature, films, and television; fine art and graphic novels; gender and sexuality; racial issues in the genre; global science fiction; and more. Alphabetical entries, which comprise the bulk of the two-volume set, discuss authors of science fiction (Isaac Asimov, Octavia Butler, Olaf Stapledon, Roger Zelazny); writers outside the genre who significantly influenced the form (Aristophanes, Franz Kafka, William Shakespeare); subgenres (Black science fiction, gay and lesbian science fiction, space opera, steampunk); particular motifs (androids, extraterrestrial worlds, virtual reality, zombies); and major works (novels Flatland and A Canticle for Leibowitz, TV program Doctor Who, and sci-fi predecessors The Divine Comedy, The Epic of Gilgamesh, and The Odyssey). Entries often include boxed sidebars and brief interviews with many of the living authors.