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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.
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Dr. Octagon
One of the pseudonyms used by US rapper Keith Matthew Thornton (1963- ), best known as Kool Keith. The character Dr. Octagon was introduced on the album Dr. Octogonecologyst (1996), as an Alien, Time Travelling surgeon and gynaecologist, who appears to either kill or sleep with virtually all his patients. The emphasis is on inventive wordplay and scatological Humour, and ...
Day of the Triffids, The
1. BBC Radio dramatization (1957) of The Day of the Triffids (6 January-3 February 1951 Collier's Weekly; as "Revolt of the Triffids"; 1951; rev 1951; orig version vt Revolt of the Triffids 1952) by John Wyndham. / 2. Film (1963). Security Pictures/Allied Artists. Directed by Steve Sekely (uncredited), Freddie Francis. Written by ...
Lewis, Leon
Working name of US author Julius Warren Lewis (1833-1920), who called himself "the Dumas of America", and who recorded himself on census returns as Leon Lewis; much of his early work was done in collaboration with his wife, the romance author Harriet Lewis (1841-1878). Amongst his many dime novels (see Dime-Novel SF), he is known to have written two Lost-Race tales: The Diamond Seeker of Brazil (1891), set in ...
Fiske, Amos K
(1842-1921) US lawyer, journalist and author of Beyond the Bourn: Reports of a Traveller Returned from the "Undiscovered Country", Submitted to the World by Amos K Fiske (1891) which, from within a fantasy frame evoking the Afterlife (see the Encyclopedia of Fantasy), describes in detail a Utopia on another planet, where sexual abstinence has helped create a benevolent Christian world [JC]
Kincaid, Paul
(1952- ) UK critic, award administrator and author; partner of Maureen Kincaid Speller from 1986 until her death in 2022 (they married in 1993). After an early sale to New Writings in SF which remains unpublished because the series ended, his first short story, "The Second Coming" appeared in a semi-professional magazine, Orbis, in 1984. His first fully professional publication was ...
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 ...