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Friday 13 June 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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Longyear, Barry B
(1942-2025) US author and editor who ran a printing company with his wife before beginning to write in 1977, beginning to publish work of genre interest with "The Tryouts" in Asimov's for November/December 1978. Before his 1981 hospitalization for alcoholism and addiction to prescription drugs – an experience which formed the basis of his non-sf novel Saint Mary Blue (1988) – he had already published prolifically, sometimes as by Frederick ...
Dobbs, Michael
(1948- ) UK politician who has held various posts in the Conservative Party, and author of House of Cards (1989), a Near Future political thriller set in a UK reeling from the retirement of Margaret Thatcher. The book was filmed by the BBC as House of Cards (1990); it is only in the television version that the book's Machiavellian protagonist, Francis Urquhart (played by Ian Richardson), is given a catchphrase ...
Robotics
Term coined by Isaac Asimov in "Liar!" (May 1941 Astounding) to describe the then imaginary science and Technology of Robot design and manufacture, as governed by the Laws of Robotics. The word was generally adopted and has entered the English language. [DRL]
Guthridge, George
(1948- ) US teacher and author who has also used the byline George Florance-Guthridge; he began to publish work of genre interest with "Dolls' Demise" in Analog for July 1976, with many further short stories following in F&SF and other venues. His first novel, Death Mask of Pancho Villa (1987) with Carol Gaskin, is a contribution to the Bantam Books Time Machine ...
Elite
Videogame (1984). Designed by David Braben, Ian Bell. Platforms: BBCMicro, Electron (1984); AppleII, C64, Spectrum (1985); Amstrad (1986); DOS, MSX (1987); Amiga, AtariST (1988); NES (1991); rev vt ArcElite, Archimedes (1991); rev vt Elite Plus, DOS (1991). / Elite's gameplay is a perfect fusion of exploration, trading, mining and combat which created its own subtype of ...
Clute, John
(1940- ) Canadian critic, editor and author, in the UK from 1969; married to Judith Clute from 1964, partner of Elizabeth Hand since 1996. He began to publish work of genre interest with an sf-tinged poem "Carcajou Lament" in Triquarterly for Winter 1960 [ie Autumn 1959]; he began consistently publishing sf reviews in his "New Fiction" column for the Toronto Star (1966-1967), and later in ...