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Welcome to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Fourth Edition. Some sample entries appear below. Click here for the Introduction; here for the masthead; here for 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 11 November 2024
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Return of Captain Invincible, The

Film (1982). Willarra/Seven Keys. Directed by Philippe Mora. Written by Steven E De Souza, Andrew Gaty; additional dialogue Peter Smalley. Cast includes Alan Arkin, Kate Fitzpatrick and Christopher Lee. 91 minutes. Colour. / Australian musical comedy whose premise is that its eponymous Superhero (Arkin), purged in the USA of the McCarthy period as "a premature anti-fascist", is now a washed-up drunk. Discovered in Sydney by policewoman Patty Patria ...

Definitions of SF

The term "science fiction" came into general use in the 1930s, an early appearance being in Hugo Gernsback's editorial to #1 of Wonder Stories (June 1929). Rather later in the UK, the term was used in Scoops (Summer 1934 and later) to describe individual stories, and Walter Gillings used the term on the cover of the first issue of ...

Jefferies, Richard

(1848-1887) UK naturalist, journalist and author, active from around 1866. The son of a farmer, he showed remarkable powers of observation when writing about Nature, describing it in a poetic style from an animist viewpoint that was devoid of sentimentality. His grasp of the description of nature as impacted upon by human agencies (see Pastoral; Pollution) does not illuminate his two early Satires – ...

Nichols, Thomas Low

(1815-1901) US journalist, hydrotherapist, social reformer and author whose Esperanza: My Journey Thither and What I Found There (part publication July 1855-December 1856 Nichols' Monthly; 1860) anonymous is an epistolary Lost Race tale in which many of Nichols' arguments – he was an advocate of free love, a supporter of universal suffrage (see Feminism), and a libertarian – are described as central to ...

Williams, Lloyd

(1869-1951) UK author of a relatively late Battle of Dorking tale, The Great Raid: A Story of Britain's Peril (13 February-15 May 1909 Black and White; 1909), with the German Invasion of Britain being narrated with a clear apprehension of the nature and possibilities of a Future War in Europe. Unusually for novels of this type during these years, there are hints of trench ...

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 ...



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