SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Thursday 19 February 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 18 February 2026
Sponsor of the day: The Telluride Institute

Muir, Douglas

(? - ) US author of American Reich (1985), a Near Future tale of political Paranoia in which elements of the American military with neo-Nazi connections take over the government. [JC]

(1943- ) US industrial economist and author who began publishing work of genre interest with "The Great American Economy" in Analog for May 1973, the first of two Council of Economic Advisors tales. Most of his work, both fantasy and sf, has been in the form of series, such as the Timedivers sequence – beginning with his first novel, The Fires of Paratime (1982; vt The Timegod 1992), plus ...

Wordmills

The term "wordmill" for a novel-writing Machine was coined by Fritz Leiber in The Silver Eggheads (January 1959 F&SF; exp 1962), though the general concept is much older. When contemplating future innovations in Technology, it is perhaps not surprising that sf writers have regularly hit upon the idea that machinery might someday take over their own profession of ...

Milligan, Spike

Working name of Indian-born Irish author and comic Terence Alan Milligan (1918-2002), who first became famous for his central role as both principal author and one of the stars of the Radio comedy The Goon Show (initially Crazy People) broadcast on BBC Radio from 1951 to 1960. These episodes generally exhibit surreal rather than science-fictional humour; partial exceptions in the form of explicit sf/fantasy Parodies include ...

Carrie

1. Film (1976). Red Bank/United Artists. Directed by Brian De Palma. Written Lawrence D Cohen, based on Carrie (1974) by Stephen King. Cast includes Nancy Allen, Amy Irving, Piper Laurie, Sissy Spacek and John Travolta. 98 minutes. Colour. / This was the breakthrough film for a director who had worked with fantastic subjects before, notably with Sisters (1972) and Phantom of the Paradise (1974). Only ...

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 ...