Science Fiction literature, also known as sci fi and sf, is one of the more recent genres, and also one of the more popular. It only truly emerged during the 20th century, and has not stopped growing in terms of authors, titles and readers. It has also evolved into a variety of subgenres, ranging from hard sf to soft sf, from Utopias to dystopias, with more than a smattering of horror, detective, war and feminist titles. Stableford covers all these aspects and more, taking a close look at what has become a booming industry, with its specialized writers, publishers, and fan magazines. The compendium includes not only sf from the United States and United Kingdom, but also France, Russia, and many others. While the chronology charts the genre's dazzling growth, and the dictionary section looks at writers, books, themes, and other specifics, the introduction provides exceptional insight into what Science Fiction Literature is all about.

Science fiction is a literary genre based on scientific speculation. Works of science fiction use the ideas and the vocabulary of all sciences to create valid narratives that explore the future effects of science on events and human beings. Science Fact and Science Fiction examines in one volume how science has propelled science-fiction and, to a lesser extent, how science fiction has influenced the sciences. Although coverage will discuss the science behind the fiction from the Classical Age to the present, focus is naturally on the 19th century to the present, when the Industrial Revolution and spectacular progress in science and technology triggered an influx of science-fiction works speculating on the future. As scientific developments alter expectations for the future, the literature absorbs, uses, and adapts such contextual visions. The goal of the Encyclopedia is not to present a catalog of sciences and their application in literary fiction, but rather to study the ongoing flow and counterflow of influences, including how fictional representations of science affect how we view its practice and disciplines. Although the main focus is on literature, other forms of science fiction, including film and video games, are explored and, because science is an international matter, works from non-English speaking countries are discussed as needed.

Science fiction is a literary genre based on scientific speculation. Works of science fiction use the ideas and the vocabulary of all sciences to create valid narratives that explore the future effects of science on events and human beings. "Science Fact and Science" "Fiction" examines in one volume how science has propelled science-fiction and, to a lesser extent, how science fiction has influenced the sciences. Although coverage will discuss the science behind the fiction from the Classical Age to the present, focus is naturally on the 19th century to the present, when the Industrial Revolution and spectacular progress in science and technology triggered an influx of science-fiction works speculating on the future. As scientific developments alter expectations for the future, the literature absorbs, uses, and adapts such contextual visions. The goal of the "Encyclopedia "is not to present a catalog of sciences and their application in literary fiction, but rather to study the ongoing flow andcounterflow of influences, including how fictional representations of science affect how we view its practice and disciplines. Although the main focus is on literature, other forms of science fiction, including film and video games, are explored and, because science is an international matter, works from non-English speaking countries are discussed as needed.

A mysterious criminal mastermind shoots Engineer Pierre Saint-Clair and steals his plans for a revolutionary invention. His son, Leo, and a band of young adventurers, pursue the villains, a gang of international anarchists, to Switzerland, where he is captured and murdered. But like a phoenix, he rises from the dead, having gained the power to see in the dark, and sporting a heart made of metal and rubber, powered by electro-magnets. 20-year-old Leo Saint-Clair has now become-the superheroic Nyctalope Enter the Nyctalope, written in 1933, is the origin story of the greatest of all French pulp heroes, created in 1911 by prolific writer Jean de La Hire. It is presented here with three additional short stories also featuring the Nyctalope.

Although the problems of writing fantasy and science fiction include all those pertaining to the writing of any kind of fiction, particular problems arise in stories in which unprecedented things can and do happen, as well as stories that often involve unhuman characters of various sorts, and that might require the elaborate design of entire imaginary worlds. This book provides an elementary introduction to problems of those kinds, and the ways in which they modify the general problems of writing fiction. It also suggests strategies that might enable the problems to be handled constructively and productively. The author has published more than seventy novels in the field, more than twenty short story collections, and more than twenty related works of non-fiction; he has, as the saying goes, been there, done that, and chewed his t-shirt in relevant frustration.

Robert Reginald says: "An absolutely first-rate guide to writing fantastic literature. Stableford has much to say that potential writers of ALL fiction might find valuable, interesting, and highly illuminating. His reasonable discussion and dissection of the basic issues facing authors of creative fiction--and the solutions to be found to each problem--are dollops of solid gold advice, in this editor's humble opinion. Every would-be author should read this book--and more than once "

Marguerite Sadoulas continues her efforts to wrest the fabulous fortune of the de Clares by ensnaring its rightful heirs, one-armed Clment and circus girl Lirette, in a murderous conspiracy. Meanwhile, the deadly sociopath Cadet-l'Amour has stepped into the vacuum created by the destruction of the High Council and seeks the Treasure of the Black Coats. But he is thwarted by the specter of Colonel Bozzo-Corona, the ruthless leader who ruled the evil empire for over a century and seems to have mysteriously returned from the grave... Written last in the series in 1875, before Fval was "born-again," The Cadet Gang is the apotheosis in the criminal saga of the Black Coats, a sequel to both Heart of Steel and The Companions of the Treasure. Paul Fval, the father of the modern detective novel, gave its lettres de noblesse to criminal literature by creating all the modern archetypes of crime fiction.

During an August heat-wave, the Comte de Saint-Germain seeks the help of detective Auguste Dupin. Someone--or someTHING--is trying to kill him! The Comte has inherited a magical cello and a mysterious sealed box. A psychic vampire (an "egregore") intends to use the cello and a magical musical composition to steal another soul. Can Dupin and his faithful companion unravel the puzzle in time to save the Comte?

It all begins innocently enough when the corpse of a London boxer is discovered at sunrise on the Place de la Concorde in Paris. But the man was reportedly seen in London only a couple of hours earlier... A great English detective and France's leading investigative reporter team up to solve a baffling mystery that will ultimately take them to a network of vast caverns under Paris inhabited by prehistoric monsters, waiting to be released... Jules Lermina's Panic in Paris (1910) combines the tradition of utopian fiction with both the scientific advances of the 19th century and the pseudoscientific trappings of Edward Bulwer-Lytton's The Coming Race (1871). It also features some intriguing anticipations of two key works by Arthur Conan Doyle, prefiguring both The Lost World (1912) and The Poison Belt (1913).

In the tradition of the old "Ace Doubles" (flip one book over to read the second title), here is the tenth Wildside Double:

VALDEMAR'S DAUGHTER: A ROMANCE OF MESMERISM, by Brian Stableford

Following the sad demise of Ernest Valdemar, as related in the story by Edgar Allan Poe, his mortal remains are sent to his daughter in Paris--but go astray--and detective Auguste Dupin must track them down. The Comte de Saint-Germain seems implicated in the mystery. Meanwhile, the great writer Balzac lies at death's door, convinced that only Valdemar's body can save him. Will Dupin thwart his adversary in the nick of time?

THE MAD TRIST: A ROMANCE OF BIBLIOMANIA, by Brian Stableford

The Comte de Saint-Germain has come into possession of The Mad Trist, the book from which Edgar Allan Poe and Roderick Usher read aloud before the collapse recorded in "The Fall of the House of Usher." He intends it as a gift to detective Auguste Dupin, but Dupin's friend, Richard Carstairs, cannot deliver the volume immediately. Richard is unintimidated by the prospect of reading a supposedly cursed book--after all, Dupin has a whole shelf full of them A classic tale of horror.

Ignis (1883) is about the industrial exploitation of Earth's central fire by a multinational cartel. It also contains fanciful digressions into biological engineering, Utopian city planning, the possibility of brain control by means of electrical stimulation and the potential exhaustion of fossil fuels. Proving again that science fiction writers are harbingers of the future, it features the first depiction of the revolt of machines-steam-powered non-humanoid robots-that have become intelligent, all penned at a time before the automobile was even invented Brian Stableford has been a professional writer since 1965. He has published more than 60 science fiction and fantasy novels, as well as several authoritative non-fiction books.

1821. Thanks to the technique discovered by Victor Frankenstein, it is now possible to resurrect the dead. Scotland Yard Superintendent Gregory Temple, on the trail of criminal mastermind John Devil, who plans to use such technology to reshape the world, is now forced to team up with Paris Morgue supervisor Jean-Pierre Severin, Malo de Treguern and Frankenstein's own creation to confront a cabal of vampires led by Count Szandor and the inhumanly beautiful Countess Marcian Gregoryi who also seek Frankenstein's secret... Frankenstein and The Vampire Countess is the second volume in a prodigious Alternate History saga which embraces the works of Mary Shelley, Paul Feval, Alexandre Dumas and others, written by Brian M. Stableford, an acknowledged master of the genre, author of the critically acclaimed The Plurality of Worlds.

From 1895, when the means of visiting the future through drug-induced "timeshadowing" is discovered by Professor Copplestone, to 12 million years AD, when the Universal Engine seeks to determine the cosmos' ultimate fate, the vast tapestry of time is the theater of a time war between the Overmen, descendents of the vampires, Humanity, and the shadowy intelligence that waits at the End of Time. Sherlock Holmes, the great detective, Count Dracula, the reluctant vampire, the mercurial Oscar Wilde, William Hope Hodgson, freshly returned from the Night Land of the Great War, the visionary H. G. Wells, Alfred Jarry, Camille Flammarion, and many other figures from the literary firmament, become pawns and players in a conflict that spans the entire course of universal history. Brian M. Stableford has been a professional writer since 1965. He has published more than 60 science fiction and fantasy novels, as well as several authoritative non-fiction books. He is also translating the works of Paul Fval and other French writers of the fantastique for Black Coat Press which has published his most recent fantasy novels: The Shadow of Frankenstein and The Stones of Camelot.