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Thursday 13 November 2025
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.
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Alarcón y Ariza, Pedro Antonio de
(1833-1891) Spanish author, initially famous for travel writings, though now know mainly as the author of El sombrero de tres picos (1874; trans anon as The Three-Cornered Hat 1891), a novella based on a traditional ballad which became famous after Manuel de Falla (1876-1946) composed a ballet in 1919 based on the tale. Alarcón is of some sf interest for his early novel, "El amigo de la muerte" (1852 El eco de occidente; trans Mrs Francis J A Darr as ...
Derennes, Charles
(1882-1930) French author who served as a medic during World War One; he was initially associated with the Mercure de France, a relatively avant-garde journal whose book-publishing arm released his first novel of sf interest, Le peuple du Pôle (1907; trans Brian Stableford in The People of the Pole 2008), which gave the tale unusual prominence for an ostensible ...
Burke, Sue
(1955- ) US journalist, editor, translator and author; resident in Spain for at least seventeen years, until 2017. She began publishing work of genre interest with "Poet for Hire" in The Czamina Kid and Other Weird Tales: Mr Mike's First Milwaukee Omnibus (anth 1995) edited by Michael G Corenthal, though she had already worked for some time as a journalist and editor. The Semiosis sequence opening with her first novel, Semiosis (2018) ...
Blankenship, William D
(1934-2012) US author whose books often interweave Technothriller and horror modes (see Horror in SF); they include The Helix File (1972), a technothriller with an Arctic setting; The Programmed Man (1973), involving nearly near-future Computers and a purloined Invention; Brotherly Love (1981), a horror novel with a bad twin ...
Bell, Harry
(1947- ) UK civil servant (retired 1997) and artist, active in Fandom since 1965 though with occasional periods of silence. He has contributed cartoon artwork to many Fanzines including Ansible, Checkpoint, Maya, Robert Lichtman's Trap Door and Leroy Kettle's ...
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 ...