SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Thursday 16 July 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 14 July 2026
Sponsor of the day: Andy Richards of Cold Tonnage Books
Shelton, William R
(1919-2001) US author who began to publish work of genre interest with "Moon Crazy" in The Saturday Evening Post for June 1949, and who wrote a number of nonfiction books about the American and Soviet space programmes, and related matters; Countdown (1960), grippingly told, is typical. Of specific sf interest is the Near Future Stowaway to the Moon: The Camelot Odyssey (1973), a ...
Laws of Robotics
The three Laws of Robotics which govern the behaviour of Isaac Asimov's fictional Positronic Robots (and various other Robots and AIs in sf by other hands) were formally stated by Asimov in his story "Runaround" (March 1942 Astounding): / 1. A robot may not injure a human being ...
MacDonald, William Colt
(1891-1968) US author of many Westerns from 1929; of sf interest is The Singing Scorpion (1934), an early title in his Three Mesquiteers sequence about three footloose adventurers; in this case an ancient relic – the emerald eyes of Zeronteotl, an Indian god – leads to the discovery of a Lost World. [JC]
Elmore, Larry
(1948- ) American artist, sometimes credited as Larry D Elmore. After obtaining a BFA from Western Kentucky University in 1971, the draft forced Elmore into military service for two years; he then did artwork for the American government, National Lampoon, and Heavy Metal before accepting a position with TSR in 1981 to create and supervise their game-related art. During the next six years, along with many paintings for TSR books and games, Elmore produced a ...
Gamemaster
Term used to refer to the individual who, in a group participating in a Role Playing Game, serves as both arbitrator of the rules and personification of the setting. Thus, the Gamemaster will take the part of any character not owned by one of the players, describe the appearance of the world, control events which occur "off stage", and so on. Some Gamemasters of "pen and paper" or "tabletop" Role Playing Games see themselves as neutral animators of a ...
Nicholls, Peter
(1939-2018) Australian editor and author, primarily a critic and historian of sf through his creation and editing of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction [see below]; resident in the UK 1970-1988, in Australia from 1988; worked as an academic in English literature (1962-1968, 1971-1977), scripted television documentaries, was a Harkness Fellow in Film-making (1968-1970) in the USA, worked as a publisher's editor (1982-1983), often broadcast film and book ...