![]() ![]() More than informative, this encyclopedia enthuses, anoints, or dismisses. But when the entry on Gene Wolfe declares that he is “quite possibly” science fiction’s most important writer, no shy excuse for this partiality follows. Within these pages, you’ll find explanations of numerous literary tropes, both those well-known (the generation starship used in many tales of space exploration) and those more obscure (a jonbar point, or the small, seemingly insignificant moment that proves to be the difference between two alternate histories, in time-travel stories). ![]() While the SFE’s purview is “science fiction” broadly conceived, its articles have warring impulses. That you could be reading it right now goes without saying, since in some alternate universe you surely are. Almost any sci-fi author you care to mention has an entry there, alongside accounts of many authors no one cares to mention at all. It features enthusiastic discussions of Medieval futurism, feminism, bug-eyed monsters, dream hacking, and Leonardo da Vinci. It bristles with Tarzan arcana and the history of Croatian science fiction. In perpetual conversation with itself, ever growing and expanding-perhaps threatening, in its accumulated obsessions, to become self-aware-this index of the fantastic documents possible pasts and futures alike. Of all the things you can read on the internet, The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction is one of the only good ones. ![]()
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