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Thursday 10 July 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.
Site updated on 7 July 2025
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Ryan, Thomas J
(1942- ) Canadian author, later in US, in whose sf novel The Adolescence of P-1 (1977) the titular Computer exceeds its design specifications, evolves into a sentient AI which interestingly attempts to gain sapience and power by establishing a distributed network of slaved versions of itself through the planetary telecommunications system (see Internet), and then must decide ...
J J J
Pseudonym of the unidentified UK author (? - ) of The Blue Shirts (1926), a Near Future political thriller in which the eponymous para-legal cadre attempts to create a Socialist Republic of Great Britain. Several separate Fascist organizations, each known as The Blue Shirts, were founded in or around 1932 in China, Ireland, Portugal; members of the Parti national social chrétien in mid-1930s ...
Traver, N K
(circa 1986- ) US author of Duplicity (2015), a Young Adult tale set in a Near Future America very similar to the contemporary world, but where seemingly covert access to Cyberspace – or perhaps a Virtual Reality constructed to resemble cyberspace – distressingly exposes the moderately dysfunctional young ...
I, Robot
Film (2004). Twentieth Century Fox/Davis Entertainment. Directed by Alex Proyas. Bruce Greenwood. Written by Jeff Vintar, Akiva Goldsman, based on I, Robot (coll 1950) by Isaac Asimov. Cast includes Bridget Moynahan, Will Smith and Alan Tudyk. 115 minutes. Colour. / In the decades since the publication of Isaac Asimov's I, Robot (coll 1950), rumours often appeared of a possible cinematic ...
Terrin, Peter
(1968- ) Belgian author whose second novel, Blanco ["Blank"] (2003), depicts a disintegrative relationship between a father and son after the former has lost his wife, couched in terms that have evoked comparison to Franz Kafka. Of sf interest is his fourth novel, De Bewaker (2009; trans David Colmer as The Guard 2012), set in an Underground parking lot occupied by ...
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 ...