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Tuesday 21 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.
Site updated on 20 July 2026
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Bradley, Charles M
(1864-1944) US author of a Depression-inspired Utopia, Me-Phi Bo-Sheth (If the Gods So Decide): An Undated Manuscript (1934), in which, among other advances, the day has ten hours. [JC]
Compton, Stoney
Working name of Leonard W Compton (? - ), US author and illustrator who began to publish work of genre interest with "Whalesong" in Universe 1 (anth 1990) edited by Robert Silverberg and Karen Haber; another early story is "When the Ship Came" (December 1994 Tomorrow). In his ...
Prisoners of Gravity
Canadian tv series (1990-1993). TVOntario; also broadcast on La Chaine Francaise. Produced and directed by Gregg Thurlbeck, written and presented Rick Green. Four seasons. 30 minutes per programme. Colour. / The premise of this vigorous and surprisingly successful series – not a drama series but a talk show about speculative fiction, probably the only such programme in the world – was that Commander Rick (Rick Green) operates a pirate broadcasting station from the ...
Kane, Gil
Working name of Latvian-born comics artist Eli Katz (1926-2000), whose family immigrated to the US in 1929; he studied at the Manhattan School of Industrial Art and was active in comics from 1941 to 1999. He created the mature incarnations of the Superheroes Green Lantern and The Atom for DC Comics, and also worked for most other major comics companies including ...
McDonough, Thomas R
(1945- ) US author and lecturer in engineering at Caltech, perhaps best known for his nonfiction and for serving as the coordinator of the SETI programme of the Planetary Society. The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence: Listening for Life in the Cosmos (1987) argues the case for seeking out First Contact with other races in the Galaxy; that there have been no successes to report over the past ...
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 ...