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Tuesday 13 January 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 12 January 2026
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von Däniken, Erich
(1935-2026) Swiss author of a series of purportedly nonfiction books, beginning with Erinnerungen an die Zukunft (1968; trans Michael Heron as Chariots of the Gods? 1969), which, based on a mass of often suspect and internally inconsistent data, argues that the Earth was visited by at least one Alien spacefaring race before and at the dawn of historical time; thus, for example, the Great Pyramid of ...
Slingshot Ending
A term initially used by Kim Stanley Robinson when attempting to describe the typical ending of a Gene Wolfe tale. The Book of the New Sun (1980-1983 4vols), There Are Doors (1988) and Exodus from the Long Sun (1996) all close as their protagonists begin to move towards a goal which has been anticipated from the beginning. But they move out of frame, out of the end of the book, ...
Altebrando, Tara
(? - ) US author of Young Adult titles, who also writes as by Tara McCarthy, most of her work, beginning with The Pursuit of Happiness (2006), being nonfantastic romances. Leaving (2016) contains hints of Horror in SF. The Possible (2017), in which Telekinesis threatens to further rupture an already seriously ...
Backman, David
(? - ) US author, the protagonist of whose first novel, The Lightning in the Collied Night (2024), is mysteriously hurled a century up the line (see Time Travel) after undue proximity to a Black Hole which may contain a Wormhole. Sabotage is suspected. [JC]
Space Cases
US/Canadian tv series (1996-1997). CINAR Productions for Nickelodeon television network (US), Family and TVOntario (Canada). Created by Peter David and Bill Mumy. Directors included John Bell, Jeff Blyth, Otta Hanus, David Straiton. Writers included Jerry Colker, David, Magda Liolis, and Mumy. Cast includes Kristian Ayre, Paul Boretski, Walter Jones, Cary Lawrence and Jewel Staite. 27 30-minute episodes. Colour. / In a future Space Academy orbiting ...
Robinson, Roger
(1943- ) UK computer programmer, bibliographer and publisher, active in UK Fandom for many years. The Writings of Henry Kenneth Bulmer (1983 chap; rev 1984 chap) is an exhaustive Bibliography of one of the most prolific sf writers, Kenneth Bulmer, and Who's Hugh?: An SF Reader's Guide to Pseudonyms (1987) is similarly exhaustive in its ...