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Wednesday 11 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 9 February 2026
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Carver, Jeffrey A
(1949-2026) US author who began publishing sf with "... Of No Return" in Fiction Magazine for 1974. His first novel, Seas of Ernathe (1976), which serves as an introduction to the loose Star Rigger sequence of Space Operas, showed early signs of a love of plot and thematic complexity which would take him some time, and several novels, to control. The continuation, Star Rigger's Way (1978), for instance, combines quest ...
Vanilla Sky
Film (2001). Paramount pictures presents a Cruise-Wagner/Vinyl Films production in association with Sogecine/Summit Entertainment/Artisan Entertainment. Written and directed by Cameron Crowe. Based on Abre Los Ojos (1997) by Alejandro Amenábar & Mateo Gil. Theme song by Paul McCartney. Cast includes Tom Cruise, Penélope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Jason Lee, Kurt Russell, Timothy Spall and Noah Taylor. ...
Visiak, E H
Working name of UK poet, critic (a noted Milton scholar) and author Edward Harold Physick (1878-1972). His fiction – like The Haunted Island (1910) [for subtitles see Checklist], a complex tale featuring ghosts, Magic and piracy – is essentially fantasy, although Medusa: A Story of Mystery, and Ecstasy, & Strange Horror (1929), an almost surreal Fantastic Voyage into unknown seas, gives ...
Critical and Historical Works About SF
This entry restricts itself to works which generalize about sf, and only in passing mentions books or articles about specific authors or themes (for which see relevant entries). / The range and sophistication of sf studies have expanded greatly. Before 1970 very little useful material was available, but since then, and especially during the 1980s, the publication of secondary materials on sf has become an industry. Dorothy Scarborough's thesis ...
Mace, Elisabeth
(1933- ) UK author of Young Adult novels, of which several are of sf interest. The Leven sequence – comprising Ransome Revisited (1975; vt Out There 1975) and The Ruston Inheritance (1978) – is set in a depopulated Ruined-Earth environment, initially in an isolated dictatorial enclave in the UK, from which the young protagonists escape; the second ...
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 ...