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Friday 21 August 2026
Welcome to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Fourth Edition. Some sample entries appear below. Click here for the Introduction; here for what we mean by Science Fiction; here for the masthead; here for some Statistics; here for the Acknowledgments; here for the FAQ; here for advice on citations. Find entries via the search box above (more details here) or browse the menu categories in the grey bar at the top of this page.
Site updated on 17 August 2026
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Crowley, John
(1942-2026) US teacher and author who also worked in documentary films and television for some time beginning in 1966. His sf novels have had a considerable impact on the field, and his fantasies established him as a figure whose work courteously but deeply stretched the boundaries of genre literature. / His first novel, The Deep (1975), is set on a flat discworld (see Flat Earth) resting on a pillar that extends beyond measurement into the ...
Carrasco, Jesús
Working name of Spanish author Jesús Carrasco Jaramillo (1972- ) in whose first novel, Intemperie (2013; trans Margaret Jull Costa as Out in the Open 2015), a young man engages in a trek across a savagely overheated desert landscape reminiscent of central Spain though hotter (see Climate Change), encountering savants and supernaturally intense Villains in his search for ...
Symons, Geraldine
(1909-1996) Ceylon-born author, mostly in UK, of some sf interest for Now and Then (1977; vt Crocuses Were Over, Hitler Was Dead 1977), whose young protagonist is visited and visits, via Timeslip, a gardener caught in World War Two. [JC]
Gateway Game
A gateway game is a term used in board, card and tabletop gaming (see Board Games; Card Games; Role Playing Games) to denote a Game that is easy to play and understand, and which is suitable for a player who may not be familiar with the above genres or a specific subgenre. Semiotically, the term implies that these games open the gates for novice players and allow them ...
Quake
Videogame (1996). id Software (id). Designed by John Carmack, American McGee, Sandy Peterson, John Romero, Tim Willits. Platforms: DOS, Lin (1996); rev vt VQuake (1996); rev vt QuakeWorld (1996); Mac, Saturn, Mainframe (1997); rev vt GLQuake (1997); rev vt WinQuake (1997); Amiga, N64 (1998); PPC (2002); rev vt Quake Mobile WinPhone ...
Robinson, Roger
(1943- ) UK computer programmer, bibliographer and publisher, active in UK Fandom for many years. The Writings of Henry Kenneth Bulmer (1983 chap; rev 1984 chap) is an exhaustive Bibliography of one of the most prolific sf writers, Kenneth Bulmer, and Who's Hugh?: An SF Reader's Guide to Pseudonyms (1987) is similarly exhaustive in its ...