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Sunday 15 June 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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Longyear, Barry B
(1942-2025) US author and editor who ran a printing company with his wife before beginning to write in 1977, beginning to publish work of genre interest with "The Tryouts" in Asimov's for November/December 1978. Before his 1981 hospitalization for alcoholism and addiction to prescription drugs – an experience which formed the basis of his non-sf novel Saint Mary Blue (1988) – he had already published prolifically, sometimes as by Frederick ...
Clarke, Lindsay
(1939- ) UK poet and author whose work in general navigates the water margins of Fantastika; though sf elements cannot be said to dominate, his narratives are in fact complexly polyvalent [for a somewhat different take on his work, see his entry in The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below]. Clarke's first novel, Sunday Whiteman (1987), examines dilemmas of ...
Gog
Film (1954). Ivan Tors/United Artists. Directed and edited by Herbert L Strock. Written by Tom Taggart, from a story by Tors. Cast includes Constance Dowling, Richard Egan and Herbert Marshall. 85 minutes. 3-D. Colour. / In this slow-moving film, originally in 3-D, experiments are being carried out on human subjects in a secret Underground laboratory to determine whether manned space flight is possible. Various pieces of equipment start to behave in a ...
Robotics
Term coined by Isaac Asimov in "Liar!" (May 1941 Astounding) to describe the then imaginary science and Technology of Robot design and manufacture, as governed by the Laws of Robotics. The word was generally adopted and has entered the English language. [DRL]
Weekend
Film (1968). Comacico/Copernic/Lira/Ascot Cineraid. Written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard. Cast includes Mireille Darc, Jean-Pierre Kalfon, Valerie Lagrange, Jean-Pierre Léaud and Jean Yanne. 103 minutes. Colour. / A Fabulation rather than sf proper, Godard's Satirical and violent film contains sf elements in its allegory of the Decline of the West. The progression of the film is from social order through ...
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 ...