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Sunday 12 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.
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O'Brien, Robert C
Pseudonym of US author Robert Leslie Conly (1918-1973); his books were marketed as juveniles, though the last two are essentially adult. His first, The Silver Crown (1968; rev 1973) [see Checklist below], is a sometimes frightening, complex fantasy about the kidnapping of a young girl by a king who in turn is ruled by a malignant Machine. Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (1971; vt The Secret of NIMH 1982), which won ...
Aguirre, Ann
(1970- ) US author who also writes romance fiction as by Ava Gray; her romance sf sequence – the Sirantha Jax books including Grimspace (2008), Wanderlust (2008), Doubleblind (2009), Killbox (2010) and Aftermath (2011) – features a tough but emotionally vulnerable female protagonist in various Space Opera settings. The Corine Solomon sequence ...
Harris, J Henry
(1875-1962) UK author whose uneasily fin-de-siècle Scientific Romance, A Romance in Radium (1906), follows the investigative journey to Earth of a feathered and winged female Alien named Ma-Myliita, a member of the angel-like Murani from 100,000,000 miles away; her people are confused as to why Murani visitors, who arrived 5000 years earlier, remained on our planet and became mortal. The answer is ...
Putnam, George Haven
(1844-1930) UK-born publisher and author, in US from childhood, involved in his father's firm, G P Putnam, from 1866, becoming head of the firm in 1872. Of sf interest is The Artificial Mother: A Marital Fantasy (1894 chap), in which a Robot is invented to take over some of the chores of parenthood. In the children's Fantasy tale The Little Gingerbread Man (1910 chap) as by G H P, the eponymous delicacy is ...
Dynamo
US Comic (1966-1967). Tower Comics. 4 issues. Artists include Steve Ditko, Mike Sekowsky, George Tuska and Wally Wood. Script writers include Dan Adkins, Ralph Reese and Wally Wood. 68 pages, with five long strips each issue. One of two spinoffs from the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents comic (which see for setting details), the other being ...
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 ...