Database of science fiction by subject matter?

November 22, 2005 6:48 AM

Is there an online database of science fiction writing by subject matter?

I stumbled across an online database of science fiction writing by subject several years ago and haven't been able to find it since. It had keywords (such as Marxism, utilitarianism, etc.) and detailed many science fiction works that covered those areas.

Anyone here know of such a database?

From this database I found out about Heinlein's Jerry Was A Man short story. Are there any other science fiction works that deal with animals and personhood?

posted by xpermanentx to writing & language (10 comments total)

The story itself reminds me of Asimov's Bicentennial Man, although it's about a robot trying to achieve personhood, not an animal. No help on the database.
posted by Plutor at 7:20 AM on November 22, 2005

A good deal of Heinlein's other work, especially his juveniles, deal with aliens and personhood. Sometimes, as in Methuselah's Children, the aliens are initially taken to be animals, or at least non-sentient. Another particularly related one of Heinlein's is The Star Beast, although many of his others -- Red Planet, for one -- probably also fit your bill.
posted by booksandlibretti at 7:31 AM on November 22, 2005

Was it the Internet Speculative Fiction Database? Can't remember how good the subject listing is, but it's a pretty complete (although no longer updated I don't think) resource.

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/index.cgi

Can't remember other searches by subjects, but the Linkoping archive is good for reviews and the like and may be useful.

http://sf.www.lysator.liu.se/sf_archive/
posted by Cyrie at 7:40 AM on November 22, 2005

I realize you're looking for something online, but if you're doing any serious work I can't recommend enough the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction [amazon]. It's 1370 pages, and you can look up almost any obscure noun or place and find what books cover it. The only downside is it's about 10 years old.
posted by hodyoaten at 7:55 AM on November 22, 2005

hodyoaten, Clute is currently working on a third edition.
posted by ninebelow at 7:57 AM on November 22, 2005

I second the recommendation for the encyclopedia. I have a copy of the second edition and it's a fantastic resource.
posted by Cyrie at 8:08 AM on November 22, 2005

WRT the last question, check out Sirius by Olaf Stapledon (good), and the whole Uplift War series by David Brin (less good).
posted by adamrice at 8:58 AM on November 22, 2005

Also Pat Murphy's Rachel in Love.
posted by Zed_Lopez at 10:55 AM on November 22, 2005

WRT the last question, check out Sirius by Olaf Stapledon (good), and the whole Uplift War series by David Brin (less good).

Cordwainer Smith also did some stuff like that.
posted by unreason at 1:38 PM on November 22, 2005

Crossing the Line (and its sequels) by Karen Traviss deals explicitly with animals and personhood.

Regarding the first question, Amazon is experimenting with tagging, which might help. Disclosure: I work at Amazon.
posted by mbrubeck at 10:13 PM on November 22, 2005