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Wednesday 6 December 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 4 December 2023
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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 ...
Luftpirat und sein Lenkbares Luftschiff, Der
["The Pirate of the Air and his Navigable Airship"] German Dime-Novel series, popularly known as Kapitän Mors der Luftpirat; it has no connection with a 1948 series of the same name. One of the most popular series of its day, its author or authors are unknown, but well-known writers like Oskar Hoffmann (1866-1928) may have been involved; and, since its adventures take place alternately on Earth and in space, it may have been written by two people. ...
Lundgren, Ray
(? - ) American book designer, sometimes credited as a cover artist. There is little biographical information available, as Lundgren keeps a low profile and makes little effort to promote himself, but he is now working in New York City as Senior Art Director for the Penguin Group. While employed in that capacity, Lundgren has been solely responsible for the covers of a number of books officially published under the Roc/ ...
Portugal
Inspired by literary trends of the period, Portuguese Proto-Sf novels in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries depicted future or remote Utopian societies that are visited and discussed at length by travelers from the present world and time. Great care is given to the shifts in world order and morality and less to scientific achievements, including the modes of Transportation to those ...
Porcayo, Gerardo
(1966- ) Mexican author and anthologist first trained as an electrical technician and as a chemist, an abortive career from which he obtained some knowledge shown in his sf writing. He later studied literature, earning a master's degree in Hispanic American Literature. He began his writing career in Puebla, where, in 1988, with another sf author, José Luis Zárate (1966- ), he founded the Puebla Circle of SF ...
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 ...