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Monday 16 March 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 16 March 2026
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Dietz, William C
(1945-2026) US author who began to publish sf with War World (1986; vt Galactic Bounty 1997), the first volume of his Sam McCade sequence of sf adventures about an interstellar bounty hunter, which continued with Imperial Bounty (1988) and two further titles. The galactic venue of the series exhibits some interesting kinks, and McCade himself gradually gains individuality. Although the angle of approach differs – the protagonist this time ...
Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders
Videogame (1988). Lucasfilm Games. Designed by David Fox. Platforms: Amiga, AppleII, AtariST, C64, DOS. / Zak McKracken is a graphical Adventure game with an interface similar to that of Maniac Mansion (1987). The player alternates between the roles of the titular Zak (a reporter for an American supermarket tabloid, the National Inquisitor), Zak's love interest, and her ...
Object Collection
US experimental theatrical and musical company formed in New York in 2004 by writer and stage director Kara Feely, and musician and composer Travis Just. They have produced a number of unconventional operas and performance pieces, including the "Utopian Space-Opera" You Are Under Our Space Control (album 2019; multimedia theatrical premiere 2020). The bare bones of the story – humans leaving a depleted earth to ...
Corpse Vanishes, The
US film (1942; vt The Case of the Missing Brides). Banner Productions. Directed by Wallace Fox. Written by Harvey Gates from a story by Sam Robins and Gerald Schnitzer. Cast includes Tristram Coffin, Bela Lugosi, Frank Moran, Angelo Rossitto, Elizabeth Russell, Minerva Urecal and Luana Walters. 63 minutes. Black and white. / As she says "I do," a bride collapses and is declared dead; the mortuary staff arrive, to be told the body has already ...
Ball, Brian N
(1932-2020) UK author, until 1965 a teacher and lecturer, subsequently freelance, who began publishing sf with "The Pioneer" in New Worlds for February 1962, soon after editing a juvenile anthology, Tales of Science Fiction (anth 1964). His first novel, Sundog (1965), is one of his better books, tinged with Space Opera, in which – though restricted by incomprehensible and uncomprehending ...
Clute, John
(1940- ) Canadian critic, editor and author, in the UK from 1969; married to Judith Clute from 1964, partner of Elizabeth Hand since 1996. He began to publish work of genre interest with an sf-tinged poem "Carcajou Lament" in Triquarterly for Winter 1960 [ie Autumn 1959]; he began consistently publishing sf reviews in his "New Fiction" column for the Toronto Star (1966-1967), and later in ...