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Friday 20 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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Forsyth, Frederick
(1938-2025) UK author who gained fame with his first novel, The Day of the Jackal (1971), and whose books are generally political thrillers. The Shepherd (1975 chap), however, is a sentimental Timeslip or ghost fantasy in which a pilot on Christmas Eve 1957 is saved from crashing by a World War Two pilot in an antique bomber: pilot and plane had been shot down on the Christmas Eve of 1943. ...
Ares
US sf Wargames magazine published by Simulations Publications Inc (SPI) from issue #1 (March 1980) to #12 (January 1982) with Redmond A Simonsen as editor; thereafter by Dragon Publishing, edited by Michael Moore from #12 (January 1982) to #14 (Spring 1983) and by Kim Mohan from #15 (Fall 1983) to #17 (Spring 1984). The schedule was bimonthly to #12 and thereafter quarterly. Seventeen issues plus ...
Cyborg [game]
Videogame (1981). Sentient Software. Designed by Michael Berlyn. Platforms: AppleII (1981); Atari8, C64 (1982). / While Cyborg was not the first science-fictional text Adventure, it may be the first such work of any lasting interest. As in Algis Budrys' rather more sophisticated novel Who? (April 1955 ...
Sword and Sorcery
This term – describing a subgenre of Fantasy embracing adventures with swordplay and Magic – seems to have first appeared in a genre-fiction context in 1953 as part of the headline "Sword and Sorcery in the Bronze Age" for a review (13 December 1953 Daily Oklahoman) by Dwight V Swain of L Sprague de Camp's The Tritonian Ring (coll ...
Boogiepop Phantom
Japanese animated tv series (2001). Original title Bugīpoppu wa Warawanai Boogiepop Phantom. Based on the Light Novels by Kouhei Kadono. Madhouse. Directed by Takashi Watanabe. Written by Sadayuki Murai. Voice cast includes Yuu Asakawa, Jun Fukuyama and Kaori Shimizu. Twelve 24-minute episodes. Colour. / Years ago the secretive Towa Organization captured and experimented on an ...
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 ...