The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, long rumored, and even longer awaited, has finally been published. The award-winning (1998 Hugo Award, Mythopoeic Award for Scholarship in the field of Myth and Fantasy, Science Fiction Weekly award for Best Related Book, and nominated for a 1998 World Fantasy award) fantasy version of their popular and highly useful The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction delivers an encyclopedia of considerable value to anyone interested in literature of the fantastic. In its thousand-plus pages, the encyclopedia does a reasonably good job covering what one would expect of a resource centered on modern fantasy. Especially welcome is the expanded definition of the genre. What some readers would consider strict “fantasy,” such as the Earthsea cycle by Ursula LeGuin, is less than half of the material covered.
That so much mainstream fantasy literature is covered is in dramatic contrast to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (St. Martin’s, 1993) where almost everything is very clearly within the “hard” science-fiction genre. As was the case with the science fiction volume, there are some glaring omissions. Where is the citation for the quintessential Dictionary of Imaginary Places? Or the role of fiddlers in the folk fantasy tradition? (Sweet Brigid, an examination of the Devil and music motif in the folklore of the Appalachian Mountains is worth an entry by itself!) Sorry, it’s not to be found in this encyclopedia. (In fairness I should note that the authors have said that the CD-ROM versions of both encyclopedias will restore the many citations that space limitations forced them to leave out.)
In general, though, the coverage is both wide-reaching and in depth. Everything from fantasy themes in opera, extensive background material on “wainscot” societies, and books of which only a truly fanatical reader would keep track, are a few of the delights. Sweet Mab, I found books that I haven’t even dreamed existed! Just pick a page at random and read whatever entry strikes your fancy: I guarantee you’ll learn something about the genre of fantastic literature that you didn’t know before!
The bottom line is that this is the comprehensive fantasy reference that the reading public have been waiting for, and I believe it’s worth every penny of the seventy-five dollars it costs for the hardcover edition! I look forward to the day when eBook-based versions of The Encyclopedia of Fantasy and The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction are available, as the only problem with these tomes is their sheer size!
(St. Martin’s, 1997)
[Update: The Encyclopedia of Fantasy and The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction are available online.]
