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Tuesday 9 June 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 8 June 2026
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Duffy, Maureen
(1933-2026) UK author, active from around 1950, several of whose books focused on London, including Capital (1975), a complex set of era-switching meditations – including a Neanderthal man's thoughts about the future – on the deep mythos of the city. The novel influenced Michael Moorcock's Mother London (1988) (as the author acknowledged clearly), and similar later works by Iain ...
Kahn, Herman
(1922-1983) American mathematician, political scientist and high-profile practitioner of Futures Studies. He worked 1947-1959 with the RAND (Research and Development) Corporation, and was subsequently director of the Hudson Institute, a body devoted to forecasting, and producing political, economic and military scenarios of the future. In his day Kahn was one of the most influential and best-known workers in this area, though many argued that the kind of ...
Wise, Clement
(? -? ) UK author of a very mildly fictionalized Utopia, Darkness and Dawn (1884) anonymous, which argues for universal state ownership of all goods, on a Christian basis; the descriptions of working conditions in factories is powerful. [JC]
Zager and Evans
US pop group comprising Denny Zager (1943- ) and Rick Evans (1943-2018). The Platonic form of the one-hit-wonder, Zager and Evans topped both US and UK charts with their earnest anthem "In the Year 2525 (Exordium and Terminus)" (1969) and never afterwards had another hit record. The song hops at 1010-year intervals from the title date through to the Far Future of the ninety-sixth century ("In the year 9595, I'm kinda wonderin' if Man ...
Superman III
Film (1983). Dovemead/Cantharus/Alexander and Ilya Salkind. Directed by Richard Lester. Written by David Newman, Leslie Newman. Cast includes Jackie Cooper, Marc McClure, Annette O'Toole, Richard Pryor, Christopher Reeve, Pamela Stephenson and Robert Vaughn. 125 minutes. Colour. / Sequel to Superman (1978) and Superman II (1980), this is a movie on a more domestic ...
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 ...