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Friday 13 March 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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Westlake, Michael
(1942- ) UK author and editor, much of whose work has been in film studies. One Zero and the Night Controller (1980) is a Fabulation in which a taxi driver tracks down an occult nocturnal mystery; Imaginary Women (1987) plays with questions of Perception as conveyed through the hallucinations of film; and in 51 Soko: To the Islands on the Other Side of the World (1990) ...
Barlow, James
(1921-1973) UK author, known mainly for such work outside the sf field as Term of Trial (1961). His sf novel proper, One Half of the World (1957), presents a UK ruled by a totalitarian leftist regime; the protagonist, finding God again (and love), conflicts with the powers-that-be, unsuccessfully. The right-wing approach of this book (see Politics) is typical of British Dystopian fiction in the 1950s. ...
Startling Mystery Stories
US digest magazine, saddle-stapled, 18 issues Summer 1966 to March 1971, published by Health Knowledge Inc, New York; edited by Robert A W Lowndes; 132 pages; quarterly. / Startling Mystery Stories was one of the routine genre magazines added by Robert A W Lowndes to the Health Knowledge Inc list during his time with this publisher, a companion to ...
Doppelgänger
Film (1969; vt Journey to the Far Side of the Sun). Century 21 Productions/Universal. Producers Gerry Anderson and Sylvia Anderson. Directed by Robert Parrish. Written by the Andersons, Donald James. Cast includes Ian Hendry, Herbert Lom, Lyn Loring, Roy Thinnes and Patrick Wymark. 101 minutes, cut to 94 minutes (US). Colour. / The first live-action feature from the Anderson production team responsible for ...
Rogers, Bessie Story
(? -? ) US author of As It May Be: A Story of the Future (1905 chap) whose protagonist, transported (perhaps after her death) by a mysterious form of Time Travel to the year 2905, finds there a Utopia where illnesses no longer exist, electric-powered advanced Technologies have eliminated the need to work, and organized Religion ...
Nicholls, Peter
(1939-2018) Australian editor and author, primarily a critic and historian of sf through his creation and editing of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction [see below]; resident in the UK 1970-1988, in Australia from 1988; worked as an academic in English literature (1962-1968, 1971-1977), scripted television documentaries, was a Harkness Fellow in Film-making (1968-1970) in the USA, worked as a publisher's editor (1982-1983), often broadcast film and book reviews on BBC Radio from 1974 and ...