Encyclopedia Of Science Fiction
(1978 - Octopus Books)

(edited by Robert Holdstock) Not to be confused with Clute & Nicholls' THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SCIENCE FICTION. Note that Tony Roberts wrap-around montage-painting for the dust-jacket does not appear inside. This is a breezy overview of the SF genre, with chapters entitled Locations, Marriage Of Science & Fiction, Major Themes, Pulps & Magazines, Screen Trips, Machine As Hero, Alien Encounter, Art & Artist, Fiction To Fact, Outer Limits, New Wave, and Yesterday-Today-&-Tomorrow, followed by a 'catalog' of almanac-ish information. The book's 224 pages has 124 of them dominated by the art, 101 of those with featured large reproductions (more than a third of those as full bleeds). 36 of the art pages are used to display 18 images so large as to spread across the central gutter - admirably only two flunk out presented that way. On many of the multiple-image pages, they've exhibited magazine & book covers, but many of those are actually reproduced too small to be really satisfying. Much of the art is accompanied by captions, but they are more concerned with contextualizing a piece with a SF theme - indeed, many of them leave the artist unidentified. The 'well-presented' artists included here are: Chris Achilleos, Allen Anderson, Hieronymous Bosch, Jim Burns (4)***, Edd Cartier**, Vincent DiFate**, Peter Elson (4)***, Virgil Finlay, Chris Foss (9), Kelly Freas (3)*, Peter Goodfellow (2), Melvyn Grant (2), David Hardy (3)***, Colin Hay (3), Eddie Jones (2), Peter Jones (3)***, Josh Kirby, Bob Layzell (5), Brian Lewis, Alexander Leydenfrost, Terry Maloney, Angus McKie (3), Chris Moore**, Jean-Michel Nicollet, John Pederson Jr., David Pelham, Bruce Pennington (2), Joe Petagno (5), Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Malcolm Pointer (2), John Richards, Tony Roberts (3), David Roe, John Schoenherr, Lawrence Sterne Stevens, Boris Vallejo (2)*, Helmut Wenske, Wesso, Tim White (2)***, Patrick Woodroffe, and UNKNOWN. This volume actually hit one of our dimensional sweet-spots for size, heft & manageability.

* - Note that the 'well-presented' pieces here by Freas, and Vallejo, can all additionally be found so (and most better) in their own collections further up The List.

** - Note that the 'well-presented' pieces here by Cartier, Moore, and DiFate, cannot additionally be found so in their own collections on The List.

*** - Note that in regards to the 'well-presented' pieces here by White, Burns, Elson, Hardy, and Peter Jones, some, but not all, can be found so in their own collections on The List.

other Sci-Fi art collections

Planet Of The Apes Artist Tribute