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Monday 5 October 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 5 October 2026
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Technothriller
A common term, used in this encyclopedia to designate a tale which, though it often makes use of sf devices, in fact occupies an undisplaced, essentially mundane narrative world, one that – during the years when technothrillers were most popular, from the 1950s to the 1970s – was commonly seen through a Cold War lens. Though usually taking place in the present day, technothrillers may be set in the Near Future and invoke ...
Mechte Navstrechu
["Meeting a Dream Halfway"] Film (1963; vt A Dream Come True; vt Encounter in Space). Odessa Studios. Directed by Mikhail Karzhukov and Otar Koberidze. Written by Mikhail Karzhukov and Otar Koberidze, based on a draft screenplay by A Berdnik and Ivan Bondin. Cast includes Boris Borisenko, A Genesin, Larisa Gordeichik, Peeter Kard, Otar Koberidze, T Pochepa, Nikolai Timofeyev and Nikolai Volkov. 64 minutes. Colour. / On a Utopian future Earth, ...
Key, David
(? - ) US author of an sf novel, The SEX Machine (1968), in which Sex and Android themes are matched together. [JC]
Berg, Sibylle
(1962- ) German journalist, playwright and author, in Switzerland from 1996, active from the early 1990s; their first novel, Ein paar Leute suchen das Glück und lachen sich tot erschien ["A Few People Search for Happiness and Laugh Themselves to Death"] (1997) is a sharp gonzo Satire directed to contemporary German and worldwide culture, with a sustaining focus on the music industry. Several of her subsequent novels convey ...
Bull, Reina M
(1924-2000) UK artist and book/magazine illustrator whose works were variously signed Sington (her birth surname), Reina, Janine, and RMB. Under the last byline she produced all of her SF Magazine work, in particular four memorable covers in 1951 and 1952, two apiece for New Worlds (Autumn 1951; November 1952) and Science Fantasy (Winter 1951; Spring 1952). Aside from being stylistically ...
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 ...