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Friday 2 June 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.
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Galton, Francis
(1822-1911) UK geneticist, eugenicist and author, grandson of Erasmus Darwin, and a speculative thinker from his early years: The Telotype; a Printing Electric Telegraph (1849 chap [dated 1850]) describes the use of typewriters (not yet invented) to convey messages electrically over long distances. He is of course most important in sf terms for coining the word Eugenics, which he defined as "the science of improving ...
Clark, Phenderson Djèlí
Pseudonym of US author Dexter Gabriel (1971- ), who began publishing work of genre interest with "Shattering the Spear" in Heroic Fantasy Quarterly for 2011. His work is in general perhaps more usefully thought of as Fantastika rather than pure fantasy, as most of his tales press against and interrogate normal genre boundaries. The Ministry of Alchemy sequence, comprising A Dead Djinn in Cairo (19 May 2016 ...
Dying Earth
A not uncommon category of sf story which has now developed its own melancholy mythology. Since the Sun is invariably moribund if not extinguished, this could also be called the dying-sun theme. Jack Vance gave this Far Future subgenre its name in The Dying Earth (coll of linked stories 1950). Important precursors are the section of H G Wells's ...
Scribe Award
The Scribe Awards for media Ties have been presented since 2007 by the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers [see under links below]. There are various award categories, genre-specific and otherwise, which changed frequently in the early years but currently include novels, short fiction and audiobooks. The Scribe Grandmaster award – also known as the Faust Award in honour of Frederick Faust (see Max ...
Kensett, Percy F
(1868-1940) UK author of The Amulet of Tarv: A Romance of the South Downs, 1,000 BC (1925), a Prehistoric SF tale whose present-day protagonists are given access via Time Viewer to the era in question; they are then able to establish Communications with the past. [JC]
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 ...