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Wednesday 14 May 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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Fabian, Stephen E
(1930-2025) American artist, sometimes credited as Steve Fabian or simply Fabian. The self-trained Fabian first worked as an electronic engineer, but he began contributing art to Fanzines in the late 1960s and became a full-time professional artist in 1973. He did a number of covers and interior art for SF Magazines, mostly Amazing, Fantastic, and ...
Barker, Thomas W
(? - ) US author of one sf novel, Five for Infinity (1976), whose multiple protagonists find that they and their Spaceship have inadvertently exceeded the speed of light (see Faster Than Light; Relativity), and find themselves in peril. [JC]
Kaiser, Georg
(1878-1945) German playwright whose work – about seventy plays in all – was central to the German Expressionist movement in the theatre from before World War One; he also wrote the text for three operas by Kurt Weill (1900-1950). After the formally unadventurous Die Korale: Schauspiel in Fünf Akten (performed 1917, Munich; 1917; trans Winifred Katzin as The Coral 1963), which comprises ...
Coffindaffer, Rebecca
(? - ) US author whose Young Adult Crownchasers Space Opera sequence, beginning with Crownchasers (2020), follows the tribulations of an heir to the throne of a Galactic Empire after she discovers that she – and other aspirants – must chase a "royal seal" down the star lanes; the one who finds this ...
Spore
Videogame (2008). Maxis. Designed by Will Wright. Platforms: Mac, Win. / The Panspermia theory formulated by the Nobel Prize-winning scientist Svante Arrhenius hypothesizes that life is spread throughout the universe by drifting seeds, or spores. The game of Spore begins with a single cell, deposited in the ocean of an unknown planet by a convenient meteor; the player's goal is to ...
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 ...