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Saturday 29 January 2022
Welcome to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Fourth Edition. Some sample entries appear below. Click here for the Introduction; here for the masthead; here for 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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Psionics
A common item of sf Terminology, usually referring to the study and use of Psi Powers, under which head this meaning is discussed. Never part of the vocabulary of J B Rhine, whose speculations fell on fertile ground in the early-middle days of Genre SF (see Golden Age of SF), the term seems to have first appeared in print in Jack Williamson's story "The Greatest Invention" (July 1951 Astounding). John W Campbell Jr became an eager advocate of psionics, not only in fiction but as a real-world ...
Clark, Margaret Goff
(1913-2004) US author for children, whose Barney sequence – Barney and the UFO (1979; vt The Boy from the UFO 1981), Barney in Space (1981; vt The Boy from the UFO Returns 1981) and Barney on Mars (1983) – is an sf adventure of some interest, though neither UFOs or Mars are treated with any great originality. [JC]
Dr Yen Sin
US Pulp magazine, three bimonthly issues, May/June-September/October 1936. Published by Popular Publications; edited by Edythe Seims working to Rogers Terrill. Dr Yen Sin was a follow-up to an earlier Popular title, The Mysterious Wu Fang, itself intended to capitalize on the popularity of Sax Rohmer's Dr Fu-Manchu; in fact the cover of #1 had originally been painted for the previous title. All issues featured lead novels by Donald E Keyhoe. Yen Sin was another conventional Yellow-Peril ...
Kolchak: The Night Stalker
US tv series (1974-1975). Francy Productions for Universal TV/ABC. Created by Jeff Rice. Executive producer: Darren McGavin. Produced by Paul Playton, Cy Chermak. Story consultant: David Chase. Cast includes Darren McGavin. Twenty 50-minute episodes. Colour. / This fondly remembered Television series was a spin-off from a successful made-for-tv movie, The Night Stalker (1972), produced by Dan Curtis and written by Richard Matheson from Jeff Rice's then unpublished novel The Night Stalker ...
Montgomery, Rutherford
(1894-1985) US author of books for children from 1932, mostly set in the American west, often featuring animals prominently. Of sf interest is the Young Adult Kent Barstow sequence, beginning with Kent Barstow Special Agent (1958) and ending with Kent Barstow Aboard the Dyna Soar (1964); Barstow, a test pilot and special agent, engages in Technothriller adventures in defense of America, and tests new Inventions, like the enormous Dyna Soar whose flight climaxes the series. [JC]
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 and one Semiprozine Hugo for his self-produced news magazine, Ansible (which see). His one ...