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Sunday 14 June 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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Duffy, Maureen
(1933-2026) UK author, active from around 1950, several of whose books focused on London, including Capital (1975), a complex set of era-switching meditations – including a Neanderthal man's thoughts about the future – on the deep mythos of the city. The novel influenced Michael Moorcock's Mother London (1988) (as the author acknowledged clearly), and similar later works by Iain ...
Gillon, Meir
(1907-1989) Transylvanian-born UK author, born Meir Selig Goldstein – surname changed to Gillon in the 1940s – whose sf novel, The Unsleep (1961) with Diana Gillon, describes the effect of the Drug Sta-Wake which, by enforcing sleeplessness, contributes to the creation of an admass Dystopia. [JC]
Space Cases
US/Canadian tv series (1996-1997). CINAR Productions for Nickelodeon television network (US), Family and TVOntario (Canada). Created by Peter David and Bill Mumy. Directors included John Bell, Jeff Blyth, Otta Hanus, David Straiton. Writers included Jerry Colker, David, Magda Liolis, and Mumy. Cast includes Kristian Ayre, Paul Boretski, Walter Jones, Cary Lawrence and Jewel Staite. 27 30-minute episodes. Colour. / In a future Space Academy orbiting ...
Archer, William
(1856-1924) Scottish critic, translator and playwright, an important reformer of the near-moribund English theatre through his translations of Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906), through his critical essays assembled in Masks or Faces? (coll 1888) and elsewhere, and through his alliance with George Bernard Shaw. He is of minor sf interest for a late play, The Green Goddess: A Play in Four Acts (performed Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1920; ...
MacDonald, George
(1824-1905) Scottish author and editor, father of Ronald MacDonald and grandfather of Philip MacDonald, perhaps now best known for his fantasies for children and his fairy tales [see Checklist]. His former occupation as a clergyman was reflected in his allegorical fantasies: Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women (1858), comprising a Pilgrim's Progress through a secondary world in search 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 ...