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Sunday 13 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.
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Physics
In discussing the scientific content of sf it is customary to regard the sciences as ranging from "hard" to "soft", with physics lying at the hard end of the spectrum (see Hard SF). A concern with the hard sciences is generally held to have characterized sf of the period 1940-1960, or a type of sf whose locus classicus is to be found in that period, and so we may expect this type of sf, in its scientific aspect, to be dominated by physics. In fact a large part ...
Bay, Michael
(1965- ) US filmmaker with a trademark in lavish, bombastic action spectacle characterized by massive hardware, explosions, and US military heroics. A graduate of the same film programme at Wesleyan University as Joss Whedon (his senior by a year), Bay's early work was in commercials and music video before he was talent-spotted by producing partners Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer to direct Bad Boys (1993) and ...
Swigart, Rob
Working name of US author and academic Eugene Robison Swigart (1941- ), whose novels, from Little America (1977) on, have been Fabulations composed in a flamboyantly brisk gonzo style through which, like Kurt Vonnegut, comprise a series of deadpan riffs on the extremities of America. Though not making up a series, his first four novels – Little America (1977), ...
Something in the Dirt
Film (2017). Rustic Films. Directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead. Written by Justin Benson. Cast includes Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead. 116 minutes. Colour. / In a contemporary Los Angeles (see California) afflicted by unspecified Disasters, a pair of down-on-their-luck neighbours are startled to witness a levitating ashtray in one of their apartments. When the phenomenon repeats, the pair decide to use this ...
Computer Role Playing Game
Term used to describe a form of Videogame derived from pen and paper Role Playing Games. This entry only deals with the single player variant; the Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, a related form in which many individuals share the same virtual world, is considered under Online Worlds. Computer Role Playing Games ...
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 ...