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Tuesday 24 June 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.
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Schoeman, Karel
(1939-2017) South African author who wrote primarily in Afrikaans. Of his many novels, Na die Geliefde Land (1972; trans Marion V Friedman as Promised Land 1978), which was filmed as Promised Land (2003), is of sf interest for its portrait of a Near Future South Africa stultified by the consequences of apartheid, and in which, after they have lost power, whites live marginalized existences. [JC]
Westwood, Alvin
Pseudonym of the unidentified UK author (? - ) of Sinister Forces (1953), a Space Opera in which the exploration of a wandering planet with dead inhabitants leads to a threat of interstellar War. [JC]
Zootopia
US animated film (2016). Walt Disney Animation Studios (see The Walt Disney Company). Directed by Byron Howard and Rich Moore. Written by Jared Bush and Phil Johnston. Voice cast includes Jason Bateman, Ginnifer Goodwin, J K Simmons and Jenny Slate. 108 minutes. Colour. / Predator and prey have learnt to live together in a world of anthropomorphic mammals (but no primates) whose society and culture is much like ours (see ...
Crofton, Francis Blake
(1842-1911) Irish-born librarian and author, in Canada from 1864 (with a decade in the US) until his retirement as librarian of the Nova Scotia provincial legislature 1in 1906 and his subsequent move to England. His nonfiction work in bibliography is of some importance; of his fiction, he is of moderate sf interest for two volumes of Tall Tales [see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below]. The Major's Big-Talk Stories ...
Sterling, George
(1869-1926) US poet and author whose reputation peaked during the first decade of the twentieth century, partly due to the fervent advocacy of Ambrose Bierce and Jack London; he is now almost entirely forgotten. The title poem of The Testimony of the Suns and Other Poems (coll 1903) is an extended essay in Cosmology whose relegation of Homo sapiens to utter insignificance ...
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 ...