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Sunday 12 July 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 7 July 2026
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Faculty, The
Film (1998). Dimension Films presents a Los Hooligans production. Directed by Robert Rodriguez. Written by Bruce Kimmel, David Wechter and Kevin Williamson. Cast includes Jordana Brewster, Clea DuVall, Laura Harris, Josh Hartnett, Shawn Hatosy, Piper Laurie, Bebe Neuwirth, Robert Patrick and Elijah Wood. 104 minutes. Colour. / Students foil an Invasion of cephalopod-specific parasites centred on their high school ...
Cloud Atlas
Film (2012). Cloud Atlas Productions/X-Filme Creative Pool/Anarchos Pictures. Directed by Tom Tykwer, Andy (now Lilly) Wachowski and Lana Wachowski. Written by Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski, and Lana Wachowski, based on the novel Cloud Atlas (2004) by David Mitchell. Cast includes Doona Bae, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, James D'Arcy, Keith David, Hugh Grant, David Gyasi, Tom Hanks, Susan Sarandon, Jim ...
Time Travel
It is a great literary convenience to be able to move a narrative viewpoint backwards or forwards in Time, and writers have always been prepared to use whatever narrative devices come to hand for this purpose. Until the end of the nineteenth century, dreams were the favoured method – perhaps most significantly deployed in Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol (1843) and Edgar Allan ...
Smith, George Albert
(1864-1959) Pioneering UK filmmaker (see Cinema), sometimes referred to as G A Smith. Initially a stage hypnotist and part of an act with Douglas Blackburn involving mind-reading (see Telepathy) and second sight (see ESP), Smith joined the Society for Psychical Research in 1883. He worked with Edmund Gurney, who was investigating Hypnotism, telepathy and suchlike: Smith, along with ...
Lamb, Alex
(? - ) UK software engineer, theatrical director and author, currently in the USA; he is of sf interest for the Roboteer sequence beginning with Roboteer (2015), a Space Opera set in an interstellar arena, into which Homo sapiens has expanded without necessarily learning the lessons of the partial ruination of Earth. The tale focuses on a War between a Terran theocracy ...
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 ...