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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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Vibert, Paul
Working name of French author Edmond-Celestin-Paul Vibert (1851-1918) who, in Pour Lire en Automobile: nouvelles fantastiques ["For Reading in an Automobile: Fantastic Stories"] (coll 1901; trans Brian Stableford as The Mysterious Fluid coll 2011), espouses the theory that electricity is the universal Power Source underlying all other forms of energy. Most of his collection comprises is made ...
Mediascene
Tabloid-size Media Magazine. Publisher: James Steranko as Supergraphics Publications. Editor: Steranko. 41 issues, 1972 to 1979. / While not an sf or fantasy Media Magazine per se, this title from Comics artist and author Steranko included a good deal of material on these genres. Starting life as Comixscene, it became Mediascene with issue ...
Space Action
US Comic (1952). Three issues. Ace Magazines (Junior Books, Inc.). Artists include Lou Cameron, Bill Molno, Rocco Mastroserio and Jim McLaughlin. Four comic strips and one (author uncredited) short story per issue. / The comic delivers on its title, the stories being action-dominated Space Operas and are enjoyable as such. The shortness of the strips (7-8 pages) means characters and narratives are formulaic (see ...
Marín, Rafael
(1959- ) Spanish translator, critic, comic book writer and co-plotter, and author; considered one of the best stylists in Spanish fantasy and science fiction. He has published nine novels, seven collections and about seventy short stories and novellas, in addition to several studies on comics and cinema, and a dozen historical and realistic novels for younger readers. Some early work was signed Rafael Marín Trechera. / After some work in poetry and comics ...
Operation Ganymed
Film (1977). Pentagrama/Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen. Written and directed by Rainer Erler. Cast includes Horst Frank, Uwe Friedrichsen, Claud Theo Gaestner, Dieter Laser, Jurgen Prochnow and Vicky Roskilly. 126 minutes, cut to 120 minutes. Colour. / This grim German film emerges as a realist response to fantasies like Planet of the Apes (1968). On their return to Earth, five survivors of a three-ship, 21-man mission to Ganymede crashland ...
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 ...