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Monday 28 April 2025
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 28 April 2025
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Broderick, Damien
(1944-2025) Australian author, editor and critic; he had a PhD in the semiotics of fiction, science and sf with special reference to the work of Samuel R Delany. He edited four anthologies of Australian sf: The Zeitgeist Machine (anth 1977), Strange Attractors (anth 1985), Matilda at the Speed of Light (anth 1988) and Centaurus: The Best of Australian Science Fiction (anth ...
MacLeod, Angus
(1906-1978) Scottish author of fiction and plays for Radio. His sf novels are The Body's Guest (1958), in which a yoga machine built by an Indian physicist switches identities (see Identity Exchange) between nine Scots and a bull, with mildly amusing results, and The Eighth Seal (1962), set on a Scottish Island where a Mad Scientist is ...
MacLean, Katherine
(1925-2019) US author who took a BA from Barnard College, New York, did postgraduate study in psychology, became a quality-control lab technician in a food factory, and subsequently served as a college lecturer in creative writing and literature. Much of MacLean's output consisted of short stories, most of which, including her first, "Defense Mechanism" in October 1949, appeared in Astounding; as in much of her later work, Psi Powers are ...
Cyrano de Bergerac
The form of his name under which French soldier and author Hector Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac (1619-1655) is best known. He fought with the Gascon Guard but retired after sustaining bad wounds. He is famous as the hero of a play by Edmond Rostand (1868-1918), Cyrano de Bergerac (performed 1897; 1898; trans Gladys Thomas and Mary E Guillemard 1898), which made legends of his swordsmanship and the size of his nose. Parts only of his major work of ...
New Voices
Original-Anthology series, subtitled "The Campbell Award Nominees", the first two volumes from Harcourt Brace & Jovanovich/Jove, #3-#4 from Berkley Books, the final volume from Bluejay Books; edited by George R R Martin. Each volume contained original novellas written (a few years later in most cases) by the four to six finalists from a particular year of the ...
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 ...