Gary Westfahl (editor), The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
and Fantasy -- Themes, Works, and Wonders (Greenwood Press, 2005)
Bless Greenwood Press as they publish some of the coolest, most useful reference works one could ever hope to need to use! The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy -- Themes, Works, and Wonders, at three volumes (nearly fourteen hundred pages), and carrying the hefty but understandable price tag of over three hundred and fifty dollars, this will be sought after by anyone with a serious interest in the intertwined genres of science fiction and fantasy. (The review copy sent by Greenwood will be placed in the collection of essential reference works I keep in my Green Man office, along with works such as The Oxford Encyclopedia of Children's Literature, Anatomy of Wonder -- A Critical Guide to Science Fiction, and John Clute and John Grant's encyclopedias of fantasy and science fiction, which are way overdue for updating.)
So what makes this an essential work?
First, there's the editor, Gary Westfahl. Like Neil Barron, who was responsible for Anatomy of Wonder, Westfahl is both knowledgeable and has a sense of self-deprecating humor, as can be noted from the Westfahl entry in his own film encyclopedia:
A figure of absolutely no importance to science fiction film, Gary Westfahl is best known (to the extent that he is known at all) for writing provocative and opinionated commentaries on science fiction literature and film.
Indeed he is. And though this entry may underplay his knowledge levels, I will say only that very few writers who could have tackled this immense project. Only John Clute, Neil Barron, and Jack Zipes come immediately to mind as having the mindset needed. Oh, another candidate just occurred to me -- Brian Stableford, who did the splendid Historical Dictionary of Fantasy Literature and Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction Literature, which also are part of my core reference collection. However nothing done by these other gentlemen, except for the even more massive Oxford Encyclopedia of Children's Literature at four volumes, comprising a total of over eighteen hundred pages -- versus a mere single volume of under six hundred pages for the previous volume (Oxford Companion to Children's Literature) even comes close to the sheer size of this endeavor! The Clute books by comparison feel, errr, sketchy.
Choice noted that 'This fascinating and well-written encyclopedia consists of two parts. The first part (volumes 1 and 2) takes 400 of the most popular themes found in both science fiction and fantasy literature, and puts them into historical and cultural context. The second (volume 3) contains entries for a selected list of classic novels, films, and television series; these include entries for all the different Star Trek series, Dr Who, Farscape, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Twilight Zone, and The X-Files'. Though it covers less territory than Clute's works, or even Barron's work that I cited above, the depth of the entries more than makes up for the apparent lack of breadth.
Now an editor is only as good as the writers he or she gets material from, and what excellent writers are have here. Take Andrew M. Butler, who provides looks at, and I'm not kidding, Comedy, Sexuality, Blade Runner, The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, The Drowned World by J.G. Ballard, E.T.: The Extraterrestrial, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr's Galapagos, Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle, Metropolis, and Total Recall! Or Lou Anders, editor of Pyr Books, who did looks at Drugs, Individualism and Conformity, Religion, Babylon 5, Batman, and Dr Who! Oh, and Westfahl does his fair share of entries as well.
One of the most impressive aspects of this undertaking is the looks at works such as Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light (sf), Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon (fantasy), or video fare such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer (fantasy) or Farscape (sf). (Classic fare including Metropolis, Dr. Strangelove, and The Terminator are also covered.) Cool, very cool. Even Iain Mackenzie, the Librarian here who can turn his nose up at a less than sterling reference work, was very, very impressed! Why? Because he says, it's the first reference work that gathers everything you need right at your side with an overview, all in one place. More reliable thanWikipedia with just enough detail to give you the knowledge you need.
So who should have a copy of this? Any library with a more than bare bones speculative fiction collection needs this, say the west Hartford Public Library who have a collection underwritten by Ben Bova, as does anyone who is more than simply a fan of this literature, i.e., anyone who collects this literature on a serious basis, as I do. It is good enough that I expect to reference it a half dozen times a week in the course of verifying facts. Westfahl should be quite proud of this work!
