Science Fiction World

The Orion Publishing Group has announced that the third edition of the essential science fiction reference work, The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, will be released online in 2012 and will be completely free. This is a gigantic work (overwhelming in a good way) and will undoubtedly be a fascinating reference point to explore online. If you want to know more about science fiction, there's enough information in the original volumes to keep you intrigued for a millennia. This is great news for science fiction scholars and fans alike.

The first edition of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, published in 1979,  was founded and edited by Peter Nicholls and contained 700,000 words. The second edition, edited by John Clute and Peter Nicholls, came 14 years later and featured over 1.3 million words. In contrast, the beta version of the third edition will contain a shocking 3 million plus words, with 12,000 entries and over 100,000 internal links. Entries will cover every area of science fiction: authors, illustrators, movies, music, games, and fanzines.

Editors of the third edition are big names in the science fiction universe, including John Clute, David Langford, Editor Emeritus Peter Nicholls, and Managing Editor Graham Sleight. The third edition text will be completed, via monthly updates by the end of 2012.

The first two editions of the The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction won the Hugo Award.

You can sign up for news regarding the project at www.sf-encyclopedia.com.