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Friday 29 September 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 25 September 2023
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Full Thrust
Miniature models based Wargame (1991). Ground Zero Games (GZG). Designed by Jon Tuffley. / Full Thrust is a set of rules for space combat with miniature models. The design favours entertaining gameplay over realistic simulation; all movement is in two dimensions and ships can only accelerate "forwards", in the direction they are facing. The result is a fast-moving, enjoyable game which seems only half real. Hard science is used for such elements as ...
Mule
Videogame (1983). Ozark Softscape. Designed by Danielle Bunten Berry. Platforms: Atari8, C64 (1983); MSX (1988); NES (1990). / MULE is an important link between traditional Board Games, played by people who are spatially and socially close to one another, and Online Worlds, often played by people who are spatially remote but socially close. Its gameplay ...
X Series, The
Videogame series (from 1999). Egosoft. / The X Series is a line of Space Sims, descended from Elite (1984). The player has considerable freedom to explore, trade, mine asteroids, fight pirates (or become one), carry out missions (including bounty-hunting and passenger transport), or create a commercial empire of space-based factories and fleets of starships. The game universe itself is ...
Ryman, Ras
Pseudonym of UK author James D Brown (? - ) for three Space Operas published by Robert Hale Limited; they are The Quadrant War (1976) – a Space Opera of War between rival interstellar empires – Day of the Ultramind (1977) and Weavers of Death (1981) [JC]
Roberts, Tony
Working name of British artist Anthony Roberts (1950- ), occasionally bylined thus but more often credited as Tony Roberts. After receiving artistic training at Wolverhampton College of Art from 1967 to 1969, and at Ravensbourne College of Art from 1969 to 1972, he almost immediately began painting sf book covers. While his first two covers – for a 1973 edition of Ralph Blum's The Simultaneous Man (1970) and a 1973 ...
Nicholls, Peter
(1939-2018) Australian editor and author, primarily a critic and historian of sf through his creation and editing of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction [see below]; resident in the UK 1970-1988, in Australia from 1988; worked as an academic in English literature (1962-1968, 1971-1977), scripted television documentaries, was a Harkness Fellow in Film-making (1968-1970) in the USA, worked as a publisher's editor (1982-1983), often broadcast film and book reviews on BBC Radio from 1974 and ...