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Tuesday 28 November 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 27 November 2023
Sponsor of the day: Andy Richards of Cold Tonnage Books
Compton, D G
(1930-2023) UK author, born of parents who were both in the theatre; he increasingly lived in the USA after 1981. As Guy Compton, he published some unremarkable detective novels, beginning with Too Many Murderers (1962), and as by Frances Lynch produced some nonfantastic Gothics throughout his career; but soon turned to sf with tales almost always set in the Near Future, and anatomizing moral dilemmas within that arena: the future is very clearly ...
Retro Hugo
Retrospective Hugo awards may be voted under certain circumstances to fill the perceived gap left by a past World SF Convention at which no Hugos were presented. Besides the voting of the usual Hugos for the previous year's sf, a Worldcon committee may optionally allow its members to choose Retro Hugos which might have been but were not presented at the Worldcon of 50, 75 or 100 years previously ...
Farmer, Nancy
(1941- ) US author, initially in South Africa, but mainly Zimbabwe from 1971 to 1988, where she began to write around 1981, publishing her first work of genre interest, "The Mirror", which won the 1987 Gold Award presented by L Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future, in L Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Vol 4 (anth 1989) edited by Algis Budrys. ...
Steakley, John
(1951-2010) US actor and author who began to publish work of genre interest with "The Bluenose Limit" for Amazing in 1981, but who is chiefly known for his two novels. Armor (1984), which is Military SF, focuses on an interstellar War between humanity and insectoid Aliens, engagements being fought by human soldiers from within the exoskeletons of nuclear-powered ...
Anghelides, Peter
(1962- ) UK author who first began publishing Ties of genre interest with "Moving On" for Doctor Who: Decalog 3: Consequences: Ten Stories, Seven Doctors, One Chain of Events (anth 1996) edited by Justin Richards and Andy Lane, and who began publishing Doctor Who: Eighth Doctor Ties with Kursaal (1998). [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 ...