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Thursday 12 March 2026
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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Roger, Noëlle
Pseudonym of Swiss author Hélène Dufour Pittard (1874-1953), whose sf novel, Le nouvel Adam (1924; trans P O Crowhurst as The New Adam 1926), is about a wholly logical and unpleasant Superman created by gland transplants. Finally, after having invented a nuclear Force Field, he blows himself up. Celui qui voit (1926; trans Robert Lancaster as He Who Sees 1935) is ...
Arts
By virtue of its nature, sf has one foot firmly set in each of C P Snow's "two cultures", and sf stories occasionally exhibit an exaggerated awareness of that divide. Charles L Harness's notable novella "The Rose" (March 1953 Authentic) takes the reconciliation of an assumed antagonism between art and science as its theme, the author adopting the view that the emotional richness of art is necessary to temper ...
Star General
Videogame (1996). Catware. Designed by Bill Fawcett. Platforms: DOS, Win. / Star General is a turn-based strategic war game dealing with conflicts on an interstellar scale (see Computer Wargames), much influenced by board and counter Wargames. The design is an expanded version of Panzer General (1994 Strategic Simulations Inc, DOS; ...
Wood, George
(1799-1870) US government official in the Treasury Department and author; his Peter Schlemihl in America (1848) anonymous is derived from Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte ["Peter Schlemihl's Miraculous Story"] (1814; trans J Bowring as Peter Schlemihl 1824) by Adalbert Von Chamisso (1781-1838), a supernatural fantasy whose protagonist, having sold his shadow to the Devil, wanders the world in search of wisdom and knowledge, aided in his travels by ...
Woops!
Tv series (1996). Witt/Thomas Productions with Touchstone Television for Fox Network. Created by Gary Jacobs. Produced by Drew Brown and Gil Junger. Directed by Terry Hughes. Writers include Ross Abrash, Harold Kimmel and Mark Nutter. Cast includes Fred Applegate, Lane Davies, Cleavant Derricks, Meagen Fay, Marita Geraghty, Evan Handler. 13 25-minute episodes. Colour. / Children playing with a remote-controlled toy car somehow cause the accidental launch of a nuclear missile which ...
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 ...