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Wednesday 17 August 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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Frank, Waldo
(1889-1967) US author whose wide-ranging but at times not very penetrating interest in philosophy, Religion and Psychology gained him acclaim in the 1920s, though his left-leaning politics became less and less palatable as the decades passed. Chalk Face (1924) details the effects of a psychological investigation into split personalities, climaxing in the protagonist's discovery that he has detached an aspect of his own self to do murders on his behalf. [JC]
Pern [series]
Very popular series of Planetary Romance/Science Fantasy tales by Anne McCaffrey (whom see for fuller discussion). The initial Pern stories are the Hugo-winning "Weyr Search" (October 1967 Analog) and the Nebula-winning "Dragonrider" (December 1967-January 1968 Analog), assembled as Dragonflight (fixup 1968). McCaffrey's dragons, though intelligent and having potent Psi Powers (in particular Telepathy and Teleportation), are not Supernatural Creatures but have been Genetically Engineered by the ...
Black Gate
US Small Press Fantasy magazine that began as a Semiprozine but now pays professional rates. It is published by New Epoch Press, St Charles, Illinois on a bi-annual basis and edited by John O'Neill. It was printed in standard size in emulation of the Pulp magazines, though is not pulp itself being printed on quality lightly coated stock, but each issue runs to over 200 pages giving it the thickness of the old pulps. The print editions, which proved prohibitively expensive, ceased with issue #15 ...
Sobel, Irwin Philip
(1901-1991) US paediatrician and author whose second novel, The Virus Killer (1975), is an sf thriller in which a Pandemic caused by an unknown virus (see Medicine) threatens New York and the world. [JC]
Abyss & Apex
US Online Magazine that qualifies as a Semiprozine based on wordrate and estimated readership. It was founded by Carol Burrell, Leah Bobet and Elizabeth Bear and published by Burrell from New York under the ByrenLee Press imprint. Elizabeth Bear was managing editor from the first issue (January/February 2003), to issue #7 (January/February 2004), followed by Kathryn Allen (March/April 2004 #8), Aleta Daknis (to #16 October 2005). Thereafter Wendy S Delmater was editor – and also became ...
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 and one Semiprozine Hugo for his self-produced news magazine, Ansible (which see). His one ...