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Wednesday 9 July 2025
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 7 July 2025
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Hearnshaw, F J C
(1869-1946) UK historian, prolific through his long career, with many studies in medieval history from a conservative standpoint. He is of sf interest for The "Ifs" of History (coll 1929), in which he assembled twenty speculative Alternate History essays focusing on Jonbar Points, once again from a conservative point of view. [JC]
Hyde, Christopher
(1949- ) Canadian television interviewer and author, generally of Technothrillers, beginning with The Wave (1979) and continuing with titles like The Icarus Seal (1982) and Crestwood Heights (1988), the eponymous village under siege in the latter tale evoking Stephen King, Ira Levin's The Stepford Wives (1974), and even ...
Grimshaw, Robert
(1850-1941) US engineer, inventor and author, much of whose output consists of manuals, including The Locomotive Catechism (1891); his one work of sf interest, Fifty Years Hence: Or What May Be in 1943: A Prophecy Supposed to Be Based on Scientific Deduction by an Improved Graphical Method (1892), is a fictionalized account of a complicated graphic Prediction calculator, by which it is possible to determine that America in 1943 will be ...
Lackey, Mercedes
(1950- ) US author best known as a highly prolific producer of Fantasy, the category into which all her solo novels fall. Her first published story was "A Different Kind of Courage" in Free Amazons of Darkover (anth 1985) edited by Marion Zimmer Bradley. The Ship Who Searched (1992) with Anne McCaffrey is sf set in the latter's ...
Kraftwerk
Enormously influential group of German electronic musicians, formed by Ralf Hütter (1946- ) and Florian Schneider-Esleben (1947-2020) in 1970. The group achieved international fame as a quartet, with drummer Wolfgang Flür (1947- ) and Karl Bartos (1952- ), following the release of their fourth album Autobahn (1974). The 20-minute title track reproduces a car journey on its titular motorway, from the ...
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 ...