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Wednesday 14 May 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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Fabian, Stephen E
(1930-2025) American artist, sometimes credited as Steve Fabian or simply Fabian. The self-trained Fabian first worked as an electronic engineer, but he began contributing art to Fanzines in the late 1960s and became a full-time professional artist in 1973. He did a number of covers and interior art for SF Magazines, mostly Amazing, Fantastic, and ...
Shirow Masamune
Pen-name and preferred romanization of Masanori Oda (1961- ), a publicity-shy Japanese comics artist crucial to the dissemination of Manga into the international market. Beginning with Areopagus Arther (1980 Atlas), Shirow was published in the fanzine Atlas, home to his early work until he was reprinted by professional publishers. Shirow's meteoric rise in the 1980s found him catching the zeitgeist ...
Asprin, Robert Lynn
(1946-2008) US author who began publishing sf with his first novel, The Cold Cash War (1977), which alarmingly conflates Game-World antics (like fake Wars between mercenaries representing rival corporations on rented turf – Brazil, for instance, being visualized mainly as an arena for world-dominating firms to play games in) and a political rationale to legitimize the corporate control of Earth. Asprin's later novels ...
Weston, Susan B
(1943- ) US author whose Children of Light (1985), set in a Ruined Earth America that had been direly but not terminally affected by Holocaust, treats the possibilities of human survival with warmth and some plausibility. [JC]
Luna Monthly
US Fanzine (1969-1977), published by Frank and Ann F Dietz from New Jersey, edited by Ann F Dietz, 67 issues, schedule varying from monthly to quarterly, stapled Digest-size, litho. Luna Monthly was notable for its professionalism and its exceptionally thorough review coverage, for which it is a useful research tool. Reviews – some by Greg Bear – were often good; Mark Purcell's column ...
Nicholls, Peter
(1939-2018) Australian editor and author, primarily a critic and historian of sf through his creation and editing of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction [see below]; resident in the UK 1970-1988, in Australia from 1988; worked as an academic in English literature (1962-1968, 1971-1977), scripted television documentaries, was a Harkness Fellow in Film-making (1968-1970) in the USA, worked as a publisher's editor (1982-1983), often broadcast film and book reviews on BBC Radio from 1974 and ...