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Sunday 12 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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Phantom Creeps, The
US Serial Film (1939). Universal Pictures. Directed by Ford Beebe and Saul A. Goodkind. Written by Basil Dickey and George Plympton, based on a story by Wyllis Cooper. Cast includes Dorothy Arnold, Robert Kent, Bela Lugosi, Jack C. Smith, Edwin Stanley Regis Toomey and Ed Wolff. Twelve circa 21-minute instalments. Black and white. / "Mad Scientist" Dr. Alex Zorka (Lugosi) ...
Editorial Practices
In Notes on Content we briefly describe the principles governing the encyclopedia's construction, and the kinds of information which may be found here. We have tried throughout to present this material as clearly as possible, but some pointers may be helpful, as below. For information on the bibliographic Checklists now appearing at the ends of entries, see Editorial Practices: Checklists. / ...
Pamuk, Orhan
(1952- ) Turkish author, almost exclusively of nonfantastic works whose comprehensive and penetrating focus on the culture and history and politics of his native land have won him praise from the world at large, and oppressive threats from the powers that be. He won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2007; and was persecuted, off and on, for referring to the Turkish genocide of its Armenian population in 1915. ...
Vader, John
(1919-2005) Australian author, in UK in the late 1960s and 1970s, most of whose work has been nonfiction, much of it dealing with military matters. His only sf novel, Battle of Sydney (1971), is an Alternate History of World War Two in which Australia is invaded by Japan; in the end the Invasion is unsuccessful. [JC]
Cooper, Susan
(1935- ) UK journalist, academic and author; in the USA from 1963. In her first novel, Mandrake (1964), which is sf, the eponymous politician takes over a distressed Near-Future England and, in mystical league with the forces of Nature, begins the process of cleansing the Earth of Man, but is stopped just in time. From that point, Cooper has written mostly fantasy, chiefly for Young Adult ...
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 ...