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Tuesday 24 May 2022
Welcome to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Fourth Edition. Some sample entries appear below. Click here for the Introduction; here for the masthead; here for 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.
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Computer Wargame
Term used by this encyclopedia to describe a form of Videogame descended (sometimes quite remotely) from the Wargame. The subject of the Computer Wargame is War, but (unlike First Person Shooters) success does not depend on reaction speed and manual dexterity. Instead, the gameplay is focused on intellectual contests of strategy and tactics; real time variants typically have less sophisticated rules than turn-based ones, but require the player to perform many complex tasks simultaneously. ...
Graham, David
Pseudonym of UK author Evan Wright (1919-1994), who is of moderate sf interest for two sf novels for Robert Hale Limited: Down to a Sunless Sea (1979), a genuinely grim Holocaust novel, featuring a few survivors of a devastating nuclear war as they fail to find safe haven; Sidewall (1982) is more routine. [JC]
Sword & Sorcery Annual
US Digest-size reprint magazine. One issue, 1975, published by Ultimate Publishing Co.; edited by Sol Cohen, uncredited. This was issued to capitalize on the sales success of the Conan stories in Fantastic. It reprinted the Conan tale "Queen of the Black Coast" (May 1934 Weird Tales) by Robert E Howard; the others Sword and Sorcery stories from Fantastic 1961-1965. [FHP/MA] links / Galactic Central illustrated checklist
Haarsma, P J
(1964- ) Canadian-born film and television producer whose Softwire sequence, beginning with The Softwire: Virus on Orbis 1 (2006) and ending with The Softwire: Awakening on Orbis 4 (2010), follows the Young Adult experiences of a "softwire" – a human capable of interaction with various forms of information-saturated Technology – in a Space Opera frame. Haarsma has created a computer Role Playing Game for this world, The Rings of Orbis, which can be played free ...
Ogden, Aimee
(? - ) US author who began to publish work of genre interest with "The Light of the Moon, the Strength of the Storm, the Warmth of the Sun" in Frozen Fairy Tales (anth 2015) edited by Kate Wolford. Her first-written novel, Local Star (2021), combines Space Opera action, partly set in a Space Habitat under threat from something like a Galactic Empire, and a complicated unpacking of a polyamorous compact of characters. Sun-Daughters, Sea-Daughters (2021), ...
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 reviews on BBC Radio from 1974 and ...