Internet Speculative Fiction Database

Online database of written speculative fiction and its creators

ISFDB: The Internet Speculative Fiction Database

Type of site

| Online database

|

Headquarters|

United States

Area served| Worldwide
Owner| Al von Ruff
Key people|

* Al von Ruff
* Ahasuerus

URL| isfdb.org
Commercial| No
Registration|

* None to view
* Required to edit

Launched| 8 September 1995; 29 years ago (1995-09-08)
Current status| 2,380,108 story titles from 283,651 authors (as of 19 June 2025)[1]
Written in|

* MySQL
* Python

The Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDB) is a database of bibliographic information on genres considered speculative fiction, including science fiction and related genres such as fantasy, alternate history, and horror fiction. The ISFDB is a volunteer effort, with the database being open for moderated editing and user contributions, and a wiki that allows the database editors to coordinate with each other. As of June 2025,[update] the site had catalogued 2,380,108 story titles from 283,651 authors.

The code for the site has been used in books and tutorials as examples of database schema and organizing content. The ISFDB database and code are available under Creative Commons licensing. The site won the Wooden Rocket Award in the Best Directory Site category in 2005.

## Purpose

[edit]

The ISFDB database indexes speculative fiction (science fiction, fantasy, horror, and alternate history) authors, novels, short fiction, essays, publishers, awards, and magazines in print, electronic, and audio formats.[2][3] It supports author pseudonyms, series, and cover art plus interior illustration credits, which are combined into integrated author, artist, and publisher bibliographies with brief biographical data. An ongoing effort is verification of publication contents and secondary bibliographic sources against the database, with the goals being data accuracy and to improve the coverage of speculative fiction to 100 percent.

## History

[edit]

Several speculative fiction author bibliographies were posted to the USENET newsgroup rec.arts.sf.written from 1984 to 1994 by Jerry Boyajian, Gregory J. E. Rawlins and John Wenn. A more or less standard bibliographic format was developed for these postings.[4] Many of these bibliographies can still be found at The Linköping Science Fiction Archive.[5] In 1993, a searchable database of awards information was developed by Al von Ruff.[4] In 1994, John R. R. Leavitt created the Speculative Fiction Clearing House (SFCH). In late 1994, he asked for help in displaying awards information, and von Ruff offered his database tools. Leavitt declined, because he wanted code that could interact with other aspects of the site. In 1995, Al von Ruff and "Ahasuerus" (a prolific contributor to rec.arts.sf.written) started to construct the ISFDB, based on experience with the SFCH and the bibliographic format finalized by John Wenn. The first version of ISFDB went live on 8 September 1995, and a URL was published in January 1996.[4][6][7]

The ISFDB was first located at an ISP in Champaign Illinois, but it suffered from constrained resources in disk space and database support, which limited its growth.[4] In October 1997 the ISFDB moved to SF Site, a major SF portal and review site.[3][4] Due to the rising costs of remaining with SF Site, the ISFDB moved to its own domain in December 2002, but it was shut down by the hosting ISP due to high resource usage.[8][9] In February 2003, it began to be hosted by The Cushing Library Science Fiction and Fantasy Research Collection and Institute for Scientific Computation at Texas A&M University.[8][10] The ISFDB moved to a commercial hosting service in 2008.[11]

On 27 February 2005, the database and the underlying code became available under Creative Commons licensing.[4][12][13]

ISFDB was originally edited by a limited number of people, principally Al von Ruff and Ahasuerus.[14][15] Editing was opened in 2006 to the general public on an open content basis, with changed content being approved by one of a limited number of moderators in an attempt to protect the accuracy of the database.[16]

In late 2022, the ISFDB faced public criticism for refusing to update its entry for the transgender author Lee Mandelo to reflect his new name. The update was finally made after more than a year of repeated requests.[17]

## Awards and reception

[edit]

In 1998, Cory Doctorow wrote in Science Fiction Age that "[T]he best all-round guide to things science-fictional remains the Internet Speculative Fiction Database".[3] In April 2009, Zenkat wrote that "it is widely considered one of the most authoritative sources about Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror literature available on the Internet".[18] ISFDB was the winner of the 2005 Wooden Rocket Award in the Best Directory Site category.[19]

Ken Irwin reviewed the site for Reference Reviews in 2006, praising "the scalable level of detail available for particular authors and titles" while also pointing out "usability improvements" needed at that time. He concludes by calling it "a tremendous asset to researchers and fans of speculative fiction", stating that no other online bibliographies have "the breadth, depth, and sophistication of this database".[20] On Tor.com, James Davis Nicoll described the site as "the single best [SFF] bibliographical resource there is".[21] Gabriel McKee, author of The Gospel According to Science Fiction, described the site as an "indispensable [source] of information in putting this project together",[22] and the site was described as "invaluable" by Andrew Milner and J. R. Burgmann in their book, Science Fiction and Climate Change.[23] The Chicon 8 committee gave a special committee award to ISFDB during their opening ceremonies on 1 September 2022.[24]

As a real-world example of a non-trivial database, the schema and MySQL files from ISFDB have been used in a number of tutorials. Schema and data from the site were used throughout Chapter 9 of the book Rails for Java Developers.[25] It was also used in a series of tutorials by Lucid Imagination on Solr, an enterprise search platform.[26]

As of September 2013[update], Quantcast estimates that ISFDB is visited by over 67,400 people monthly.[27] The database, as of 1 June 2025[update], contains 2,380,108 unique story titles from 283,651 authors.[1]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b "ISFDB Statistics". Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Archived from the original on 18 January 2025. Retrieved 18 January 2025.
2. ^ "Link Sites". SF Site. Archived from the original on 30 June 2012. Retrieved 17 May 2009.
3. ^ a b c Doctorow, Cory (September 1998). "Internet Column from Science Fiction Age, September 1998". Science Fiction Age. Archived from the original on 10 July 2012. Retrieved 17 May 2009. "The best all-round guide to things science-fictional remains the Internet Speculative Fiction Database."
4. ^ a b c d e f "Internet Speculative Fiction Database". Onpedia. Archived from the original on 6 March 2012. Retrieved 17 May 2009.
5. ^ "The Linköping Science Fiction & Fantasy Archive". Retrieved 23 July 2009.
6. ^ "What's New from 1995". Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Archived from the original on 18 April 2022. Retrieved 18 April 2022.
7. ^ "What's New from 1996". Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Archived from the original on 18 April 2022. Retrieved 18 April 2022.
8. ^ a b "ISFDB finds new home at Texas A&M". SFWA News. Science Fiction Writers of America. 5 April 2003. Archived from the original on 11 August 2011. Retrieved 29 September 2010.
9. ^ "What's New from 2003 - ISFDB (Jan)". isfdb.org. Retrieved 2023-01-14.
10. ^ "What's New from 2003 - ISFDB (Feb)". isfdb.org. Retrieved 2023-01-14.
11. ^ "What's New from 2008 - ISFDB". isfdb.org. Retrieved 2023-01-14.
12. ^ "ISFDB:General disclaimer". Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Archived from the original on 2 August 2012. Retrieved 30 July 2009.
13. ^ "What's New from 2005: What's New – 27 Feb 2005". Internet Speculative Fiction Database. 27 February 2005. Archived from the original on 3 September 2012. Retrieved 30 July 2009.
14. ^ "Major Contributors". Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Archived from the original on 18 April 2022. Retrieved 18 April 2022.
15. ^ "Top ISFDB contributors (All Submission Types)". Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Archived from the original on 18 April 2022. Retrieved 18 April 2022.
16. ^ Gandalara (23 December 2006). "Changes to the ISFDB". Science Fiction Brewed Fresh Daily. Other*Worlds*Cafe. Archived from the original on 13 December 2015. Retrieved 17 May 2009.
17. ^ Sanford, Jason (31 December 2022). "Genre Grapevine for December 31, 2022". Retrieved 11 January 2023.
18. ^ Zenkat (14 April 2009). "Our latest mass data load: science fiction books". Archived from the original on 19 May 2012. Retrieved 12 December 2015. "...it is widely considered one of the most authoritative sources about Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror literature available on the Internet."
19. ^ "2005 winners: Wooden Rocket Awards". SF Crowsnest. Archived from the original on 26 February 2009. Retrieved 8 February 2009. "14 Best Directory Site. Directories, online databases or search engines with a worthy SFF section. Winner: Internet Speculative Fiction Database www.isfdb.org."
20. ^ Irwin, Ken (October 2006). Chalcraft, Tony (ed.). "Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDB)". Reference Reviews. 20 (7). Emerald Group Publishing: 30–32\. doi:10.1108/09504120610691619. ISSN 0950-4125. ProQuest 862159187. Retrieved July 14, 2022.
21. ^ Nicoll, James Davis (April 30, 2021). "The Single Best Bibliographical Resource There Is (if You Like SFF)". Tor.com. Archived from the original on July 14, 2022. Retrieved July 14, 2022.
22. ^ McKee, Gabriel (January 2007). The Gospel According to Science Fiction: From The Twilight Zone to the Final Frontier. Westminster John Knox Press. p. ix. ISBN 978-0-664-22901-6.
23. ^ Milner, Andrew; Burgmann, J. R. (May 2020). Science Fiction and Climate Change: A Sociological Approach. Liverpool University Press. p. 40\. ISBN 978-1-789-62172-3.
24. ^ Glyer, Mike (1 September 2022). "First Fandom Awards and Big Heart Award Given at Chicon 8 Opening Ceremonies". Archived from the original on 4 September 2022. Retrieved 8 September 2022.
25. ^ Halloway, Stuart Dabbs; Gehtland, Justin (2007). "Creating and Invoking Web Services". Rails for Java Developers (PDF). Pragmatic Programmer. p. 249\. ISBN 978-0-9776166-9-5. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-10. Retrieved 2011-03-14.
26. ^ Hossman (21 January 2011). "Solr Powered ISFDB – Part #1". Lucid Imagination. Archived from the original on 1 March 2011. Retrieved 14 March 2011.
27. ^ "isfdb.org Monthly Uniques". Quantcast.com. Archived from the original on 27 September 2013. Retrieved 27 September 2013.

## External links

[edit]

* Official website
* ISFDB Bibliographic Tools on SourceForge
* ISFDB Bibliographic Tools at Open Hub
* Sources of Bibliographic Information (isfdb.org)

* v
* t
* e

Fantasy fiction

* History
* Literature
* Magic
* Sources

Subgenres|

* Accidental travel
* Action-adventure
* Lost world
* Sword and sorcery
* Wuxia
* Alternate history
* Chuanyue
* Contemporary
* Children's fantasy
* Comedy
* Bangsian
* Dark fantasy
* Grimdark
* Fairy tale parodies
* Fairytale fantasy
* Fantastique
* Fantasy of manners
* Hard fantasy
* High fantasy
* Historical fantasy
* Isekai
* LitRPG
* Low fantasy
* Magical girl
* Mythic
* Mythpunk
* Mythopoeia
* Omegaverse
* Progression
* Romantic
* Science fantasy
* Dying Earth
* Planetary romance
* Shenmo
* Urban fantasy
* Occult detective fiction
* Paranormal romance
* Weird fiction
* New weird
* Weird West
* Fantasy Western
* Xianxia

Media|

| Film and television|

* Anime
* Films
* highest-grossing
* S&S
* Television programs

|

Literature|

* Authors
* Ballantine Adult Fantasy series
* Comics
* list
* The Encyclopedia of Fantasy
* Fantasy Masterworks
* Internet Speculative Fiction Database
* List of novels
* A–H
* I–R
* S–Z
* List of story collections
* Publishers

Magazines|

* Fantastic
* Fantastic Adventures
* Locus
* The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
* Science Fantasy
* Unknown
* Weird Tales

Other|

* Dungeons & Dragons
* Féeries
* Podcasts

Awards|

* Balrog
* British Fantasy
* Crawford
* Dragon
* Gandalf
* Gemmell
* Hugo
* International Fantasy
* Japan Fantasy
* Locus
* Méliès d'Or
* Mythopoeic
* Nebula
* Saturn
* Tähtifantasia
* World Fantasy

Fandom|

* Art
* Fanspeak
* Filk music
* Harry Potter fandom
* The Inklings
* Lovecraft fandom
* Mythopoeic Society
* Tolkien fandom
* Tolkien's influence
* Works inspired by J. R. R. Tolkien
* World Fantasy Convention

Tropes|

| Creatures|

* Angels
* Demons
* Devils
* Ghouls
* Elementals
* Faeries
* Familiars
* Fire-breathing monsters
* Chimera
* Dragons
* Gargoyles
* Imps
* Jinn
* Nymphs
* Shapeshifters
* Werecats
* Werewolves
* Skin-walkers
* Spirits
* Talking animals
* Undead
* Death
* Ghosts
* Liches
* Mummies
* Skeletons
* Vampires
* Zombies
* Unicorns
* Yōkai

|

Characters|

* Barbarian
* Caveman
* Damsel in distress
* Dark lord
* Donor
* Dragonslayer
* Fairy godmother
* Heroes
* Magicians
* Occult detective
* list
* Wild man
* Witches

Magic system|

* Hard and soft
* Elements
* Dark/neutral/light
* Ceremonial
* Love
* Moon
* Magic item
* Grimoire
* Magic ring
* Magical weapons
* Magic sword
* Runes
* Wand
* Schools
* Alchemy
* Demonology
* Divination
* Egregore
* Evocation
* Incantation
* Necromancy
* Runecraft
* Shamanism
* Shapeshifting
* Thaumaturgy
* Theurgy
* Witchcraft

Fantasy races|

* Centaurs
* Dwarves
* Elves
* Treants
* Giants
* Gnomes
* Goblins
* Gremlins
* Halflings
* Hobgoblins
* Kobolds
* Leprechauns
* Merfolk
* Mermaids
* Mermen
* Ogres
* Oni
* Orcs
* Trolls

Places and events|

* Quests
* Worlds
* list
* Maps
* Lost city
* Hollow Earth
* Astral plane
* Dreamworld
* Castle
* Enchanted forest
* Thieves' guild
* Magic school

Related|

* Allegory
* Epic poetry
* Fable
* Fairy tale
* Ghost stories
* Gothic fiction
* Horror fiction
* LGBT themes in speculative fiction
* Mecha
* Mythology
* Science fiction
* Supernatural fiction
* Superhero
* Tokusatsu
* Kaiju
* Urban legend

* Outline
* Category

* v
* t
* e

Science fiction

Outline|

* Authors
* Definitions
* Anthropological
* Hard
* Scientific romance
* Soft
* History
* Pulp era
* Golden Age
* New Wave
* Timeline

Subgenres|

* Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic
* Comedy
* Sitcoms
* Feminist
* Grimdark
* Inner space
* Mecha
* Anime and manga
* Mundane
* Space warfare
* Military
* Space opera
* Space Western
* Parallel universes
* Isekai
* Science fantasy
* Dying Earth
* Planetary romance
* Superhero
* Sword and planet
* Social
* Climate fiction
* Christian
* Libertarian
* Utopian and dystopian
* Tech noir
* Spy-Fi
* Techno-thriller
* Tokusatsu
* Kaiju
* Underwater

Cyberpunk derivatives|

* Cyberpunk
* Japanese
* Biopunk
* Dieselpunk
* Nanopunk
* Solarpunk
* Steampunk

Culture|

* Conventions
* Fandom
* Fanzines
* ISFDB
* Libraries and museums
* Science Fiction Museum
* Studies
* Women in SF
* Worldcon

Region|

* Australian
* Bengali
* Brazilian
* Canadian
* Chilean
* Chinese
* Croatian
* Czech
* Estonian
* French
* Hungarian
* Japanese
* Korean
* Norwegian
* Polish
* Romanian
* Russian
* Serbian
* Spanish
* Yugoslav

Awards|

| Cinematic|

* Jules Verne
* Saturn

|

Literary, art,
and audio|

* Astounding
* Aurealis
* BSFA
* Campbell Memorial
* Chesley
* Clarke
* Crook
* Deutscher
* Dick
* Ditmar
* Endeavor
* FantLab
* Galaxy
* Gaughan
* Geffen
* Golden Duck
* Grand Master
* Grand Prix
* Harland
* Heinlein
* Ignotus
* Kitschies
* Lambda
* Laßwitz
* Locus
* Nautilus
* Nebula
* Nommo
* Norton
* Parsec
* Prometheus
* Rhysling
* SFERA
* Sidewise
* Skylark
* Sturgeon
* Sunburst
* Tähtivaeltaja
* TBD
* Tiptree
* Tour-Apollo
* Translation
* Urania
* Vogel
* Writers and Illustrators of the Future
* Zajdel

Multimedia|

* Aurora
* Chandler
* Dragon
* Hugo
* Seiun
* Spectrum

Media|

| Film|

* Film history
* Films
* Indian
* Japanese
* Anime
* Tokusatsu

|

Literature|

* Comics
* Magazines
* Novels
* Publishers
* Short stories

Stage|

* Opera
* Theatre

Television|

* List of TV shows
* Australasian
* British
* Canadian
* European
* Japanese
* Anime
* Live-action
* U.S.

Themes|

| Architectural|

* Dyson sphere
* Ecumenopolis
* Matrioshka brain
* Space stations and habitats
* Stellar engine
* Terraforming
* Topopolis

|

Biological|

* Biological warfare
* Evolution
* Extraterrestrials
* List
* Gender
* Genetic engineering
* Invisibility
* Nanotechnology
* Organ transplantation
* Parasitism
* Sex and sexuality
* Symbiosis

Physical|

* Black holes
* Extrasolar planets
* Multiverse
* Parallel universes
* Portable hole
* Space travel
* Stars
* Tachyons
* Teleportation
* Time travel
* Time viewer
* Wormhole

Psychological|

* Group mind
* Mind uploading
* Psionics
* Simulated consciousness

Social|

* Africanfuturism
* Afrofuturism
* Alien invasion
* Alien language
* Ancient astronauts
* Black
* Evil corporation
* First contact
* Frankenstein complex
* Galactic empire
* LGBT
* Message from space
* Transhumanism
* Uplift
* Xenoarchaeology

Technological|

* Ansible
* Artificial intelligence
* AI takeover
* Astroengineering
* Force field
* Holography
* Hyperspace
* Inertialess
* Robots and Cyborgs
* Self-replicating machines
* Simulated reality
* Spacecraft
* Stargate
* Warp drive
* Weapons

Religious|

* Christian science fiction

Related|

* Alternate history
* Fantasy
* Fictional astronauts
* Fictional technology
* Future history
* Horror
* Magic realism
* Museum of Science Fiction
* Rubber science
* Science and technology studies
* Sense of wonder
* Speculative fiction
* Supernatural
* Technology and society
* Weird

* Category
* Portal

* v
* t
* e

Horror fiction

* Speculative fiction

Media|

* Anime
* Comics
* Creepypasta
* List
* Films
* History
* Magazines
* Podcasts
* Television programs
* Video games
* List

Types|

* Analog
* Art
* Black
* Body
* Cannibal
* Christmas
* Comedy
* Zombie
* Creepypasta
* Cosmic
* Dark fantasy
* Dark Romanticism
* Faustian
* Grimdark
* Splatterpunk
* Erotic
* Guro
* Monster erotica
* Zombie pornography
* Folk
* Found footage
* Ghost
* Giallo
* List of films
* Gothic
* American
* Southern
* Southern Ontario
* Suburban
* Tasmanian
* Urban
* Japanese
* Korean
* Lovecraftian
* Monsters
* Jiangshi
* Vampire
* Werewolf
* Occult detective
* Organ transplantation
* Penny dreadful
* Postmodern horror
* Psychological
* Survival
* Techno
* Weird fiction
* New weird
* Weird menace
* Weird West
* Zombie apocalypse

Monsters|

* Demons
* Devils
* Ghouls
* Div
* Evil clowns
* Extraterrestrials
* Fire-breathing monsters
* Chimera
* Dragons
* Gargoyles
* Kaiju
* Killer toy
* Mutants
* Ogres
* Sea monster
* Piranha
* Therianthropes
* Werecats
* Werewolves
* Undead
* Death
* Ghosts
* Mummies
* Skeletons
* Vampires
* Zombies
* Witches

Related genres|

* Black comedy
* Fantastique
* Fantasy fiction
* Mystery
* Paranormal
* Science fiction
* Shenmo
* Supernatural
* Thriller
* Tokusatsu
* Urban legend

Other|

* Conventions
* Deathrock
* Grand Guignol
* Horror host
* Horror punk
* Horrorcore
* Macabre
* LGBTQ themes
* characters
* Vulgar auteurism
* Writers

Related|

* Bram Stoker Award
* Internet Speculative Fiction Database
* Pulp magazine
* Video nasties

* Category
* Portal

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