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Sunday 20 April 2025
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.
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Computers
The computer revolution transformed the real world so rapidly that sf had to struggle hard to keep up with actual developments. Although Charles Babbage's attempts to develop a mechanical computer have lately attracted attention in such Steampunk novels as The Difference Engine (1990) by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, they failed to inspire ...
Rendal, Justine
(1948-2004) US author born Randy Goldfield who changed her name legally to Justine Olivia Rendal; in her Young Adult sf tale, A Very Personal Computer (2004), an adolescent in crisis is helped by his Computer, which contains a seemingly sentient program or AI called Conner, which guides him through his difficult times. [JC]
Steampunk Explorer, The
US Online Magazine published since March 2018, edited from the San Francisco area by Stephen Beale, a semi-retired professional journalist. / Produced in the style of an online magazine or newspaper (see Newszines), The Steampunk Explorer covers news about Steampunk Fandom, media, and related topics with an emphasis on activities in English-speaking countries ...
Oldrey, John
(? -? ) Pseudonym of an unidentified UK author based in the Pancras area of London, whose sf novel is The Devil's Henchmen (1926). Unusually for a Lost Race tale, this is set in the future; it locates the lost realm north of India, where advanced Technology allows its inhabitants to maintain a secret Utopia. [JC]
Coonts, Stephen
(1946- ) US author and editor, author of the Saucer sequence, comprising Saucer (2003) and Saucer: The Conquest (2005), in which a young man discovers an ancient artefact – the eponymous spaceship – and must fight friend and foe in order to retain it in order to save humanity. Coonts's Military SF anthology, Combat (anth 2001; in three cut parts, all three together making up the ...
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 ...