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Thursday 7 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.
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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 ...
Goodman, Arthur
(? -1965) US playwright in whose Alternate History play, If Booth Had Missed: A Drama of the Reconstruction Period (performed 13 May 1931 Craig Theatre, New York; 1932), the Jonbar Point is as indicated in the title. Lincoln is subsequently impeached for continuing to attempt to create a better union, and on being found not guilty is duly assassinated. [JC]
Sakers, Don
(1958-2021) Japanese-born reviewer and author, in USA from an early age, who began publishing sf with "Gamester" for Questar in 1981; his short work appeared in various magazines through the 1980s, and he published occasional fiction in the twenty-first century; as a reviewer, he published more than a hundred columns as regular reviewer of the Reference Library series for Analog, beginning with a guest appearance in the March 2009 issue. Much of his ...
Scanners
Film (1980). Filmplan International/Canadian Film Development Corp. Written and directed by David Cronenberg. Cast includes Lawrence Dane, Michael Ironside, Stephen Lack, Patrick McGoohan and Jennifer O'Neal. 103 minutes. Colour. / This superior Psi-Powers movie easily outstrips Carrie (1976) and The Fury (1978). Pregnant women (we learn ...
Buggles
Also known as The Buggles. A UK synth-pop band comprising Trevor Horn (1949- ) and Geoff Downes (1952- ). Masters of bright and electro-pop that both mourned the passing of the old world and celebrated the colourful and plastic near-future, the career of The Buggles was appropriately shiny and transient. Their first single "Video Killed the Radio Star" was a number #1 hit; and the rush-released album, The Age of Plastic (1980) stands ...
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 ...