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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.
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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 ...
Offenbach, Jacques
(1819-1880) German-born composer of over 100 operas, operettas and other musical pieces; in France from 1833, naturalized 1860. He is recorded here mainly for Le Voyage dans la lune (1875), an opéra bouffe (strictly speaking it is an opéra féerie) adaptation of Jules Verne's De la Terre à la Lune (1865). "Adaptation" ought to be understood, here, somewhat loosely. Although Offenbach and his ...
Terror from the Year 5000
US film (1958; vt Cage of Doom). La Jolla Productions. Directed and written by Robert J Gurney Jr; very loosely inspired by "Bottle Baby" (April 1957 Fantastic) by Henry Slesar (uncredited). Cast includes Ward Costello, Frederic Downs, Fred Herrick, Joyce Holden, Salome Jens and John Stratton. 70 minutes. Black and white. / We are loudly informed by the narrator that "in the year 1947 man broke through the sound ...
Malme, Arvid
(1943-1993) Norwegian teacher, painter and author. His first published sf story "Lampen lyser for deg" ["The Lamp Shines For You"] (1972 Science Fiction Magasinet #3-#4; see Nova – Fantastiske Fortellinger) was followed by works in Nova included in his only book of genre interest Dakrons bok: Boschiana ["The Book of Dakron: Boshiana"] (coll 1978). The storyteller is visiting the studio ...
Rogers, Lebbeus Harding
(1847-1932) US businessman and author whose The Kite Trust (A Romance of Wealth) (1900), which may have been self-published, follows the juvenile kite-inventors and founders of the eponymous compact into adulthood, enormous wealth, the discovery of new Power Sources and the construction of transatlantic tunnels (see Under the Sea), while all the while an interplanetary spirit instructs the cast on the history of ...
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 ...