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Sunday 13 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.
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Spacewar
Videogame (1962). Designed by Stephen Russell, J M Graetz, Wayne Wiitanen. Platforms: Mainframe, Arcade, Others. / While not the first game to be implemented using electronic hardware, Spacewar was the first such game with an original design, and the first to be widely distributed. Inspired by E E Smith's Lensman and Skylark series, the developers decided to write a game for the new PDP-1 minicomputer ...
Roys, Willis E
(? -? ) US author of Flame Eternal; And, Maharajah's Son (coll 1936), the first of the two novellas assembled being a Lost Race tale in which an Edenic matriarchy (see Gender) is discovered in the heart of Brazil. [JC]
Findley, Timothy
(1930-2002) Canadian actor from 1953 and author who began to publish fiction with the nonfantastic "About Effie" for The Tamarack Review, Autumn 1956, and who remained moderately prolific through his substantial career; though much of his work seems at first glance to be fantasy, it escapes any straightforward definition as such, as his Equipoisal fluctuations between Mythology and "reality" generate a sense that the venues he ...
Temné Slunce
Film (1980; vt Dark Sun; The Black Sun). Filmové studio Barrandov. Directed by Otakar Vávra. Written by Vávra, Jiří Šotola, loosely based on Krakatit (1924; trans 1925) by Karel Čapek. Cast includes Radoslav Brzobohatý, Rudolf Hrušínský and Magda Vašáryová. 133 minutes. Colour. / This is the better-known of Vávra's two ...
Sarti, Ron
(? - ) US academic and author of The Chronicles of Scar sequence, comprising The Chronicles of Scar (1996), Legacy of the Ancients (1997) and The Lanterns of God (1998); set in a balkanized Ruined Earth version of America, the tale is constructed along lines familiar in contemporary fantasy, for the young protagonist, the eponymous Scar, is a Hidden Monarch (see The ...
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 ...