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Sunday 16 August 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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Crowley, John
(1942-2026) US teacher and author who also worked in documentary films and television for some time beginning in 1966. His sf novels have had a considerable impact on the field, and his fantasies established him as a figure whose work courteously but deeply stretched the boundaries of genre literature. / His first novel, The Deep (1975), is set on a flat discworld resting on a pillar that extends beyond measurement into the circumambient galactic Deep, in which very few stars ...
Kelly, Frank K
(1914-2010) US journalist and author of considerable nonfiction, including studies in American contemporary history with Cornelius Ryan (1920-1974). He began to publish sf with "The Light Bender" in Wonder Stories for June 1931, and rapidly became known for Space-Opera tales of some bleakness, with a tendency toward Disaster, though some of his adventures featuring travel through various ...
Somewhere in Time
Film (1980). Universal Pictures. Directed by Jeannot Swzarc. Screenplay by Richard Matheson based on his novel Bid Time Return (1975). Produced by Stephen Deutsch and Ray Stark (uncredited). Cast includes Susan French, Christopher Reeve, Christopher Plummer, Jane Seymour, George Voskovec, Teresa Wright. 103 minutes. Colour. / 1972: as young Richard Collier (Reeve) celebrates the debut of his play, an aged woman (French) approaches, ...
Yanagihara, Hanya
(1974- ) US journalist, editor and author best-known for the nonfantastic novel A Little Life (2015). Her first novel, The People in the Trees (2013), which is of sf interest, takes some elements from the life and career of Daniel Carleton Gajdusek (1923-2008), an eminent medical researcher who identified a cure for kuru, a deadly disease afflicting the South Fore people of New Guinea through their practice of funerary cannibalism, for which he ...
Turn-On
US tv series (1969). George Schlatter-Ed Friendly Productions. Created by Friendly and Schlatter. Writers included Albert Brooks. Cast included Tim Conway (guest host), Teresa Graves, Ken Greenwald and Maura McGiveney. One episode. Colour. / A hapless effort to duplicate the success of George Schlatter's sketch comedy series Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In (1968-1973), Turn-On is widely regarded as the worst disaster in American television history. A few stations ...
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 ...