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Sunday 9 August 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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Barr, Martin W
(1860-1938) US medical doctor and author; in the former capacity, as superintendent from 1893 to an unknown date of the Pennsylvania Training School for Feeble-Minded Children at Elwyn, he was a strong advocate of the sterilization of "mental defectives" in his care whom he deemed incurable. Of sf interest is his only novel, The King of Thomond: A Story of Yesterday (1907), in the frame story of which the superintendent of a Pennsylvania insane asylum presents the first-person ...
Pearson, Ryne Douglas
(1964- ) US screenwriter and author, mostly of thrillers; October's Ghost (1994), like most Technothrillers, is set in an indefinite very Near Future world, in this case during and after the Cuban launch of an atomic missile. Much confusion ensues. [JC]
Vogel, Julius
(1835-1899) UK-born politician, entrepreneur, newspaper editor and author, in Australia from 1852 and New Zealand from 1861, where he spent the bulk of his professional life until 1888, serving as New Zealand Premier 1873-1875 and 1876. His sf novel, Anno Domini 2000, or Woman's Destiny (1889), set partly in New Zealand and Australia, treats the dawning twenty-first century as benignly prosperous, with the Empire benefiting from ...
Wearmouth, Darren A
(? - ) UK author with his brother Marcus Wearmouth of the Activation sequence of Near Future post-Disaster thrillers beginning with First Activation (2011), set initially in a New York dominated by Zombie-like minions of a tyrannical organization bent on reshaping America. ...
Darrow, Paul
(1941-2019) UK actor and author whose Avon: A Terrible Aspect (1989), a Tie to the Blake's 7 world, deals with the early life of the character Avon, whom he played in 51 of the 52 episodes of the original Television series. The Novel of Queen: The Eye (1997) novelizes an interactive Game created by the rock group Queen. / A ...
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 ...