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Monday 16 March 2026
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 16 March 2026
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Dietz, William C
(1945-2026) US author who began to publish sf with War World (1986; vt Galactic Bounty 1997), the first volume of his Sam McCade sequence of sf adventures about an interstellar bounty hunter, which continued with Imperial Bounty (1988) and two further titles. The galactic venue of the series exhibits some interesting kinks, and McCade himself gradually gains individuality. Although the angle of approach differs – the protagonist this time ...
Daniel, Gabriel
(1649-1728) French historian, polemical theologian and author whose Voiage du Monde de Descartes (1690; trans Thomas Taylor as A Voyage to the World of Cartesius 1692) is a Fantastic Voyage through the Cartesian universe, eventually carrying its protagonists beyond the Moon into outer "space" (it has been speculated that Daniel was the first to use the word in this sense). Space turns out to contain at ...
Boyett, Steven R
(1960- ) US screenwriter and author whose first novel, Ariel (1983; text restored 2009), is a fantasy, along with its direct sequel in the Ariel sequence, Elegy Beach (2009); his second novel, The Architect of Sleep (1986), is an sf tale set in a Parallel World occupied by an intricately and plausibly depicted species which has evolved (see Evolution) ...
Deepstar Six
Film (1988). Carolco/Tri-Star. Directed and coproduced by Sean S Cunningham. Written by Lewis Abernathy, Geof Miller, based on a story by Abernathy. Cast includes Taurean Blacque, Joyce Collins, Greg Evigan and Miguel Ferrer. 99 minutes. Colour. / A deep-sea missile base is being installed by underwater (see Under the Sea) station DeepStar Six. Explosives open a vast cavern under the ocean floor, in which dwells a monstrous arthropod; it destroys two ...
Board Game
Term used to describe games played with physical pieces on a (generally flat) board or map, as with Chess. Clearly this definition can overlap with that of Wargames; this encyclopedia has categorized games descended from the board and counter Wargame Tactics (1954) designed by Charles Roberts and sharing its preoccupation with realistic simulation as Wargames, and all ...
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 ...