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Wednesday 9 July 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.
Site updated on 7 July 2025
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Anti-Intellectualism in SF
Anti-intellectualism takes two forms in sf: a persistent if minor theme appears in stories in which the intellect is distrusted; more common are stories about future Dystopias in which society at large distrusts the intellect although the authors, themselves intellectuals, do not. / In stories of the first sort, Intelligence is usually seen to be sterile if unmodified by intuition, feeling or compassion – a familiar theme ...
Johnson, Edgar
(1912-1990) US ceramic artist and author, for whose works of sf interest in collaboration with his wife Annabel Johnson, see her entry. Johnson should not to be confused with Edgar Johnson (1901-1972), an earlier novelist. [JC]
Kagarlitski, Julius
(1926-2000) Russian critic and professor of European drama at the State Theatrical Institute in Moscow. One of the leading Russian critics to have a strong interest in sf, Kagarlitski published the first and most comprehensive study in the then USSR of an individual sf author: Gerbert Uells (1963; trans Moura Budberg as The Life and Thought of H.G. Wells 1966; considerably rev and exp vt Vgliadyvaias v griadushchee ["Staring into the Future"] 1989). He ...
Fish!
Videogame (1988). Magnetic Scrolls (MS). Designed by Pete Kemp, John Molloy, Phil South, Robert Steggles. Platforms: Amiga, AtariST, C64, DOS (1988); Spectrum (1989). / Fish! is a surreal text Adventure (with static illustrations) in which the player adopts the role of an inter-dimensional secret agent. This hero is something of a serial body snatcher, travelling between ...
Zebedee, Jo
(1971- ) Northern Irish author whose Inheritance Trilogy beginning with Abendau's Heir (2015) places into a dynastic Space Opera universe a family drama involving a ruthless Telepathic empress and her son; their conflict unpacks in a series of Military SF encounters. She is deposed, but regains her Galactic Empire, ...
Robinson, Roger
(1943- ) UK computer programmer, bibliographer and publisher, active in UK Fandom for many years. The Writings of Henry Kenneth Bulmer (1983 chap; rev 1984 chap) is an exhaustive Bibliography of one of the most prolific sf writers, Kenneth Bulmer, and Who's Hugh?: An SF Reader's Guide to Pseudonyms (1987) is similarly exhaustive in its ...