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Sunday 12 April 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 6 April 2026
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Carlock, Michaela
(? - ) US author whose sf novel, Planet Dreams (1998) depicts two contrasting futures, a polluted, violent Dystopia and a pastoral Utopia connected solely when the protagonists engage in lucid dreaming. Both worlds are depicted with some realism, though an element of wish fulfilment is necessary to believe in the second. [JC]
Smith, H Allen
(1907-1976) US newspaperman and author, mostly of humorous sketches (from about 1922) and books, often for the Saturday Evening Post. In his first sf novel, Mr Klein's Kampf, or His Life as Hitler's Double (1939), a Jew takes over from his look-alike, Hitler, and spoofishly declares Germany to be the new Zion. The Age of the Tail (1955), also a comic Satire, depicts the effect on a ...
Zathura: A Space Adventure
Film (2005). Columbia Pictures presents a Radar Pictures/Teitler Film/Michael de Luca production. Directed by Jon Favreau. Written by David Koepp & John Camps, based on Zathura: A Space Adventure (graph 2002) by Chris van Allsburg. Cast includes Jonah Bobo, Josh Hutcherson, Tim Robbins, Dax Shepard and Kristen Stewart. 119 minutes. Colour. / Two squabbling brothers discover a vintage mechanical ...
Parker, Charley
(? - ) Cartoonist, painter, and early web-designer, best known for the webcomic Argon Zark!. Beginning in June 1995, Argon Zark! is one of the first long-form narrative webcomics. The titular Argon Zark invents a new Internet protocol – the "Personal Transport Protocol" – which allows people to physically travel through the Internet's Cyberspace. He, his personal ...
Curties, Henry
(1860-1928) UK author, who sometimes wrote as Captain Henry Curties; his first sf novel, Tears of Angels (1907), features its protagonist's conveyance to Alpha Centauri on an angel, who is perhaps weeping; from the star he gains a perspective on Earth, then returns home to find himself in an Alternate-History version of the future. Out of the Shadows (1908) is a detection with occult elements; When England Slept ...
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 ...