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Sunday 12 January 2025
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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Droid [2]
Also known as "{species}droid" and "{species}DROID". US electro-funk band, whose debut release The Systematik Eviloution of {species}DROID (2005) mashes genre topics into an eclectic musical hybrid of contemporary dance styles. The name is presumably based on the sf coinage Droid as popularized in Star Wars (1977). [AR]
Prometheus Award
An Award presented for sf which is at least nominally Libertarian or attempts to "examine the meaning of freedom". It was inaugurated by L Neil Smith in 1979 and relaunched by the newly formed Libertarian Futurist Society in 1982, since when the presentations have been annual. The trophy takes the form of a gold coin "representing free trade and free minds". Prometheus Hall of Fame awards are also ...
Stranger Things
US online tv series (2016-current). 21 Laps Entertainment and Monkey Massacre for Netflix. Created by Matt Duffer and Ross Duffer. Written by Paul Dichter, Justin Doble, Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer, Jessica Mecklenburg, Jessie Nickson-Lopez and Alison Tatlock. Directed by Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer and Shawn Levy. Cast includes Millie Bobby Brown, Joe Keery, David Harbour, Charlie Heaton, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Matthew Modine, Shannon Purser, Winona Ryder, Noah Schnapp and Finn ...
Schmidt, Arno
(1914-1979) German translator and author noted for his linguistic innovation and the swift wit of his experimental fictions, which project an air of calculatedly cerebral quarrelsomeness; he repeatedly acknowledged the influence of Edgar Allan Poe, whom he translated, and whose speculations shape and dominate his most ambitious novel, Zettels Traum ["Bottom's Dream"] (1970). The marked and extremist manipulation of ...
Smith, Gavin [1]
(? - ) Author, apparently US-based, of the novel DogFellow's Ghost (2008), which depicts the lives of surgically engineered creatures (see Uplift) on a Pacific Island after their "Master" has abandoned them. The tale reads almost as a grim Sequel by Other Hands to H G Wells's The Island of Dr Moreau (1896). ...
Langford, David
(1953- ) UK author, critic, editor, publisher and sf fan, in the latter capacity recipient of 21 Hugo awards for fan writing – some of the best of his several hundred pieces are assembled as Let's Hear It for the Deaf Man (coll 1992 chap US; much exp vt The Silence of the Langford 1996; exp 2015 ebook) as Dave Langford, edited by Ben Yalow – plus five Best Fanzine Hugos ...