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Thursday 12 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 ...
Upload
This real-world term for the transfer of data to a remote Computer (for example, new or amended web pages to a website host) has taken on a special sf significance as denoting the copying or transfer of a human or other personality to a sentient software representation. Interesting early examples are "Ghost" (May 1943 Astounding) by Henry Kuttner and C L Moore, in which the ...
Missile to the Moon
Film (1958). Astor. Directed by Richard E Cunha. Written by H E Barrie and Vincent Fotre. Cast includes Nina Bara, Gary Clarke, Tommy Cook, Cathy Downs, K T Stevens, Richard Travis and Michael Whalen. 78 minutes. Black and white. / In this loose remake of Cat-Women of the Moon (1953; vt Rocket to the Moon), members of the dying lunar race send one of their few remaining males, Scientist Dirk Green ...
Arkham Sampler, The
US "little" magazine, review size (9 x 6 in; about 230 x 150 mm), quarterly, eight issues, Winter 1948 to Autumn 1949, published by Arkham House, edited by August Derleth. An offshoot of Arkham House's book-publishing activities, Arkham Sampler was as much a literary review as a fantasy magazine, incorporating both essays and reviews as well as fiction, a small amount of which was reprinted from obscure sources. Amongst ...
Mice
The rodents most frequently found in sf are Rats (which see); but mice, their less threatening relatives, are also involved in similar sf tropes. A mouse civilization on a lost Pacific Island is discovered in The Wonders of Mouseland (1901) by Edward Earle Childs. The Iconic cartoon character Mickey Mouse, dating from 1928, has occasional science-fictional ...
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 ...