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Tuesday 10 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 ...
Stolen Airship, The
Czechoslovakian live-action and animated film (1967; original title Ukradená vzducholod). Filmové Studio Barrandov, Filmové Studio Gottwaldov. Directed by Karel Zeman. Written by Radovan Krátky and Karel Zeman, based on the Jules Verne novels The Mysterious Island (1874-1875 2vols) and Two Years' Vacation (1889). Cast includes Hanus Bor, Jan Cizek, Jan Malát, Michal Pospisil, Cestmir ...
Parkinson, H F
(? - ) UK author whose Near Future sf novel, They Shall not Die (1939), describes with muted irony the effects of a Medicine which prevents all disease and grants Immortality, but also sterilizes those who use it: only those who remain prone to the ills of the flesh can continue the race. [JC]
Spencer, Colin
(1933-2023) UK broadcaster, painter and author, active in the latter capacity from 1955, his short stories and novels almost never edging into the fantastic. Of sf interest is Asylum (1966), a Satire set in very Near Future Britain seen in Absurdist SF terms as exactly an asylum, one in which – in a manner similar to the Theatre of the Absurd – extravagant behaviours are staged, ...
Trevayne, Emma
(? - ) US author whose work is restricted to works for younger child and for the Young Adult market, beginning with the Coda sequence comprising Coda (2013) and Chorus (2014), set in a Near Future Dystopia; the young protagonist, armed with Music, subverts the tyranny in charge in time to save the ...
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 ...