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Thursday 16 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 14 July 2026
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Woman Eater, The
Film (1958; vt Womaneater 1959). Fortress Film Productions, Ltd/Eros Films (UK), Columbia Pictures (US). Produced by Guido Coen. Directed by Charles Saunders. Written by Brandon Fleming from his original story. Cast includes George Coulouris, Vera Day, Joyce Gregg and Jimmy Vaughn. 70 minutes. Black and white. / The sadistic, misogynist Mad Scientist Dr James Moran (Coulouris) returns from the Amazon with a tentacled carnivorous tree to ...
Ellern, William B
(1933-2023) US engineer, who worked for the Jet Propulsion Labs, Raytheon, Boeing and elsewhere, and author of some stories set in the Lensman universe of E E Smith, who gave his permission. These begin with "Moon Prospector" in Analog for April 1966, and are most notable for a Sequel by Other Hands to the main sequence: New Lensman (January-July 1975 ...
Oldrey, John
(? -? ) Pseudonym of an unidentified UK author based in the Pancras area of London, whose sf novel is The Devil's Henchmen (1926). Unusually for a Lost Race tale, this is set in the future; it locates the lost realm north of India, where advanced Technology allows its inhabitants to maintain a secret Utopia. [JC]
Substance, The
Film (2024). Working Title Films, Blacksmith, A Good Story. Written and directed by Coralie Fargeat. Cast includes Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley and Dennis Quaid. 141 minutes. Colour. / On her fiftieth birthday, former film star Elisabeth Sparkle (Moore) is unceremoniously dismissed from her job as a fitness guru on a morning television show by sleazy boss Harvey (Quaid), who is looking for someone "young and hot". On her way home she crashes her car, and in hospital is given by a ...
Chetwynd, Tom
(1938-2012) UK teacher and author, son of Bridget Chetwynd, who concentrated mostly on nonfiction studies in which Christianity and Zen Buddhism are persuasively married, including Zen and the Kingdom of Heaven (2001). His Dystopia, The Copper Cow (1962), portrays a Near Future Britain in hyperbolically surreal terms. [JC]
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 ...