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Monday 16 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 ...
Fulton, John P
(1902-1966) Pioneering special effects photographer. Moving from Nebraska to California in 1914, Fulton worked for a time as a land surveyor due to his father's strong opposition to his becoming involved with the Cinema industry. He started work for D W Griffith as an assistant cameraman in the 1920s, then moved to Universal Pictures after more experience learning the basics of optical composition, and traveling matte photography. His first genre credit was ...
Michaud, A C
(1876-1975) US author of Our Coming World (1951), a Utopia set on a Mars whose long-lived inhabitants, benefiting from a healthy socialist regime much in contrast with the terrible state of post-World War Two Earth, kidnap the crew of a B-29 bomber and teach them things it is good to know. [JC]
Bigg, Henry Robert Heather
(1853-1911) UK medical doctor and author of The Human Republic (1891), whose protagonist miniaturizes himself (see Miniaturization) into a white corpuscle; this conveyance then guides him through the Utopian landscape of the human body, which Bigg thinks of as a Republic. [JC]
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 ...
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 ...