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Thursday 20 January 2022
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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Wright, Will
(1960- ) US Game designer, inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame in 2002. Wright's first published work was Raid on Bungeling Bay (1984 Brøderbund Software, C64; 1985 MSX, NES), a well received helicopter combat game in which the player must destroy an enemy city in plan view. While writing Raid, he discovered that he found building the city maps using his own software tools more enjoyable than destroying them in the game, which ...
Fin du Monde, La
Film (1931; vt The End of the World). L'Écran d'Art. Directed by Abel Gance. Written by Gance, suggested by a story by Camille Flammarion. Cast includes Jeanne Brindeau, Colette Darfeuil, Samson Fainsilber, Victor Francen, Gance and Sylvie Grenade. 105 minutes, cut to 91 minutes, cut to 54 minutes. Black and white. / This tells of a Comet's approach to Earth and of the upheavals (natural and cultural) that ensue. There are orgies, and the rise of a totalitarian leader (Francen), ...
Christopher, John
Principal working name of UK author Sam Youd (1922-2012), whose birth forename was Sam rather than Samuel; he adopted the first name Christopher on confirmation into the Church of England, but was never so called by intimates although many sources give his full name as Christopher Samuel Youd. He was active in sf Fandom (see The Fantast; The Satellite) before World War Two, in which he served; very early he published a non-genre story, "For Love of Country" for Lilliput in February 1940 and a ...
Watson, Aaron
(1850-1926) UK journalist and author, active from the earl 1870s; he is of sf interest for For Lust of Gold [for subtitle see Checklist below] (1 November 1888-16 February 1889 The Shields Daily Gazette; 1892), a Lost Race tale, set in Elizabethan times, which describes the discovery of the hidden City of Manoa, where treasure is found but discord mounts. [JC]
Marshall, James Scott
(? -? ) US author of a Utopia, The Planet Mars and its Inhabitants: A Psychic Revelation: by Iros Urides (a Martian) Written Down and Edited by J L Kennon (1922) as by Iros Urides [see also Checklist below], which in lightly fictionalized terms describes an ideal society on Mars, with advanced Technology and Transportation powered by electricity. Authorship of this text, which is copyright Mabel J McKean, has also been credited to J L Kennon. / Though it ...
Clute, John
(1940- ) Canadian critic, editor and author, in the UK from 1969; married to Judith Clute from 1964, partner of Elizabeth Hand since 1996. His first professional publication was the long sf-tinged poem "Carcajou Lament" (Winter 1960 [ie Autumn 1959] Triquarterly), though he only began publishing sf reviews in 1964 and sf proper with "A Man Must Die" in New Worlds for November 1966, where much of his earlier criticism also appeared. This criticism, despite some studiously ...