Science fiction is a literary genre based on scientific speculation. Works of science fiction use the ideas and the vocabulary of all sciences to create valid narratives that explore the future effects of science on events and human beings. Science Fact and Science Fiction examines in one volume how science has propelled science-fiction and, to a lesser extent, how science fiction has influenced the sciences. Although coverage will discuss the science behind the fiction from the Classical Age to the present, focus is naturally on the 19th century to the present, when the Industrial Revolution and spectacular progress in science and technology triggered an influx of science-fiction works speculating on the future. As scientific developments alter expectations for the future, the literature absorbs, uses, and adapts such contextual visions. The goal of the Encyclopedia is not to present a catalog of sciences and their application in literary fiction, but rather to study the ongoing flow and counterflow of influences, including how fictional representations of science affect how we view its practice and disciplines. Although the main focus is on literature, other forms of science fiction, including film and video games, are explored and, because science is an international matter, works from non-English speaking countries are discussed as needed.

Science fiction is a literary genre based on scientific speculation. Works of science fiction use the ideas and the vocabulary of all sciences to create valid narratives that explore the future effects of science on events and human beings. "Science Fact and Science" "Fiction" examines in one volume how science has propelled science-fiction and, to a lesser extent, how science fiction has influenced the sciences. Although coverage will discuss the science behind the fiction from the Classical Age to the present, focus is naturally on the 19th century to the present, when the Industrial Revolution and spectacular progress in science and technology triggered an influx of science-fiction works speculating on the future. As scientific developments alter expectations for the future, the literature absorbs, uses, and adapts such contextual visions. The goal of the "Encyclopedia "is not to present a catalog of sciences and their application in literary fiction, but rather to study the ongoing flow andcounterflow of influences, including how fictional representations of science affect how we view its practice and disciplines. Although the main focus is on literature, other forms of science fiction, including film and video games, are explored and, because science is an international matter, works from non-English speaking countries are discussed as needed.

Science Fiction literature, also known as sci fi and sf, is one of the more recent genres, and also one of the more popular. It only truly emerged during the 20th century, and has not stopped growing in terms of authors, titles and readers. It has also evolved into a variety of subgenres, ranging from hard sf to soft sf, from Utopias to dystopias, with more than a smattering of horror, detective, war and feminist titles. Stableford covers all these aspects and more, taking a close look at what has become a booming industry, with its specialized writers, publishers, and fan magazines. The compendium includes not only sf from the United States and United Kingdom, but also France, Russia, and many others. While the chronology charts the genre's dazzling growth, and the dictionary section looks at writers, books, themes, and other specifics, the introduction provides exceptional insight into what Science Fiction Literature is all about.

In the far future, Earth is slowing dying, as the Sun has turned into a red giant that threatens to explode. The last inhabitants of the planet have no idea why they're still living, and why they seem to have been made in the image of earliest man--and not the countless human species that have existed since. But they still have to time to ponder, and time to kill--and they do so in the traditional way, by killing each other This isn't an hospitable Earth, even for magicians--especially a well-meaning one--but Giraiazal of Natalarch is determined to do the best he can to keep on cheating Damozel Fate, in spite of her nasty tricks, until the very end...or at least as close to the very end as he can get. A sweeping fantasy novel of the end of the world, in the style of Jack Vance's classic The Dying Earth.

Champavert was the archetypal collection of the French "contes cruels," and the book still remains among the cruellest of them all. It is also one of the greatest collections of short stories ever published; the only reason that it has never been translated before is that the job was so challenging that only an insane person would tackle it. Petrus Borel the Lycanthrope (as he called himself) declared himself dead before the book was published, but not many people believed him, even though he was the most honest man in Paris. Here are seven classic tales of horror, fantasy, and the twistings of fate, including the final story, "Champavert, the Lycanthrope," translated from the French for the very first time by the well-known fantastist and critic, Brian Stableford.

It is 1847, and Paris is edging closer to its next revolution, but something is also astir inside Mont Dragon in the Ardeche. This is a place of annual pilgrimage for a band of enigmatic nomads, and also a place of interest to the ambitious Bishop of Viviers. In spite of his distaste for travel, Auguste Dupin makes the long southward journey, in the hope that he might be able to help an old friend, the evolutionist Claude Guerande. Guerande believes that he has made discoveries in the caves of Mont Dragon that might cast new light on the origin of humankind, and of life itself. Over the years, however, not everyone who has gone into the caves has come out again, and not everyone who has come out has been unaltered...and 1847 promises to be a critical year, more dangerous than any before it. And when the bizarre flameflower begins to bloom, everything changes Another great tale in the Auguste Dupin series.

During an August heat-wave, the Comte de Saint-Germain seeks the help of detective Auguste Dupin. Someone--or someTHING--is trying to kill him! The Comte has inherited a magical cello and a mysterious sealed box. A psychic vampire (an "egregore") intends to use the cello and a magical musical composition to steal another soul. Can Dupin and his faithful companion unravel the puzzle in time to save the Comte?

In the tradition of the old "Ace Doubles" (flip one book over to read the second title), here is the tenth Wildside Double:

VALDEMAR'S DAUGHTER: A ROMANCE OF MESMERISM, by Brian Stableford

Following the sad demise of Ernest Valdemar, as related in the story by Edgar Allan Poe, his mortal remains are sent to his daughter in Paris--but go astray--and detective Auguste Dupin must track them down. The Comte de Saint-Germain seems implicated in the mystery. Meanwhile, the great writer Balzac lies at death's door, convinced that only Valdemar's body can save him. Will Dupin thwart his adversary in the nick of time?

THE MAD TRIST: A ROMANCE OF BIBLIOMANIA, by Brian Stableford

The Comte de Saint-Germain has come into possession of The Mad Trist, the book from which Edgar Allan Poe and Roderick Usher read aloud before the collapse recorded in "The Fall of the House of Usher." He intends it as a gift to detective Auguste Dupin, but Dupin's friend, Richard Carstairs, cannot deliver the volume immediately. Richard is unintimidated by the prospect of reading a supposedly cursed book--after all, Dupin has a whole shelf full of them A classic tale of horror.

It all begins innocently enough when the corpse of a London boxer is discovered at sunrise on the Place de la Concorde in Paris. But the man was reportedly seen in London only a couple of hours earlier... A great English detective and France's leading investigative reporter team up to solve a baffling mystery that will ultimately take them to a network of vast caverns under Paris inhabited by prehistoric monsters, waiting to be released... Jules Lermina's Panic in Paris (1910) combines the tradition of utopian fiction with both the scientific advances of the 19th century and the pseudoscientific trappings of Edward Bulwer-Lytton's The Coming Race (1871). It also features some intriguing anticipations of two key works by Arthur Conan Doyle, prefiguring both The Lost World (1912) and The Poison Belt (1913).

The deadly Madame Atomos is a brilliant but twisted Japanese scientist who is out to avenge herself against the United States for the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where she lost her family. Opposing her are Smith Beffort of the FBI, Dr. Alan Soblen, and Yosho Akamatsu of the Japanese Secret Police. This classic French sci-fi thriller series from the 1960s is presented in English for the first time translated by Brian Stableford. In the first two novels collected here, Madame Atomos unleashes radioactive zombies in New York and giant mutated spiders in Texas.

Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes is among the most famous literary figures of all time. For more than a hundred years, his adventures have stood as imperishable monuments to the ability of human reason to penetrate every mystery, solve every puzzle, and punish every crime.
For nearly as long, the macabre tales of H. P. Lovecraft have haunted readers with their nightmarish glimpses into realms of cosmic chaos and undying evil. But what would happen if Conan Doyle's peerless detective and his allies were to find themselves faced with mysteries whose solutions lay not only beyond the grasp of logic, but of sanity itself.
In this collection of all-new, all-original tales, twenty of today's most cutting edge writers provide their answers to that burning question.
"A Study in Emerald" by Neil Gaiman: A gruesome murder exposes a plot against the Crown, a seditious conspiracy so cunningly wrought that only one man in all London could have planned it-and only one man can hope to stop it.
"A Case of Royal Blood" by Steven-Elliot Altman: Sherlock Holmes and H. G. Wells join forces to protect a princess stalked by a ghost-or perhaps something far worse than a ghost.
"Art in the Blood" by Brian Stableford: One man's horrific affliction leads Sherlock Holmes to an ancient curse that threatens to awaken the crawling chaos slumbering in the blood of all humankind.
"The Curious Case of Miss Violet Stone" by Poppy Z. Brite and David Ferguson: A girl who has not eaten in more than three years teaches Holmes and Watson that sometimes the impossible "cannot" be eliminated.
"The Horror of the Many Faces" by Tim Lebbon: Dr. Watson witnesses a maniacal murder in London-and recognizes the villain as none other than his friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes.
"With these and fourteen other dark tales of madness, horror, and deduction, a new and terrible game is afoot.
"
The terrifyingly surreal universe of horror master H. P. Lovecraft bleeds into the logical world of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's champion of rational deduction-in these brand-new stories by twenty of today's top horror, mystery, fantasy, and science fiction writers, including:
- Steven-Elliot Altman
- Elizabeth Bear
- Poppy Z. Brite
- Simon Clark
- David Ferguson
- Paul Finch
- Neil Gaiman
- Barbara Hambly
- Caitlin R. Kiernan
- Tim Lebbon
- James Lowder
- Richard A. Lupoff
- F. Gwynplaine McIntyre
- John Pelan
- Steve Perry
- Michael Reaves
- Brian Stableford
- John P. Vourlis
- David Niall Wilson & Patricia Lee Macomber

"From the Hardcover edition."