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Friday 29 September 2023
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.
Site updated on 25 September 2023
Sponsor of the day: Andy Richards of Cold Tonnage Books
Ditmar Award
The Australian SF Awards, familiarly known as the Ditmars, were first given in 1969 and are presented in various categories for sf, fantasy and horror-related work by Australians. Voting resembles the system used for the Hugos but is associated with membership of the annual Australian National Convention ("Natcon") rather than the Worldcon. There have been many category changes over the years, some ...
Schweitzer, Darrell
(1952- ) US critic, editor, bookseller and author who was early active in sf Fandom, publishing some amateur fiction, though his first professional story of genre interest was "Come to Mother" for Weirdbook #4 in 1971, but who has spent his energies very variously for many years, coming initially to notice with a series of critical studies [they are broken down in the Checklist below] including Lovecraft in the Cinema (1975 ...
Dowling, Terry
Working name of Australian lecturer in English, television performer, songwriter and author Terence William Dowling (1947- ). One of the most interesting new voices in 1990s Australian local sf, Dowling has gleaned international praise as well. His master's thesis was, unusually for Australia, about sf – its topic was J G Ballard and the Surrealists. "The Man Who Walks Away behind the Eyes" (May/June ...
Weber, T C
(? - ) US ecologist and author whose Near Future BetterWorld Trilogy sequence beginning with Sleep State Interrupt (2016) focuses on attempts to defeat the media corporation MediaCorp whose BetterWorld, an addictive Virtual Reality site, has hypnotized the planet for the benefit of a tiny number of venture capitalists and a corrupt American president. The ...
Fretland, Don J
(? - ) US author of the Oleandre Trilogy series beginning with The Persimmion Sequence (1970), set in a Near Future Dystopian world where scientists have been driven Underground though – it may be – there is some hope that Mars clings to independence. [JC]
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, and Who's Hugh?: An SF Reader's Guide to Pseudonyms (1987) is similarly exhaustive in its listing of Pseudonyms. ...