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Wednesday 18 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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Petersilea, Carlyle
(1844-1903) US pianist and author of the Discovered Country sequence, a discursive spiritualist Utopia expounded in The Discovered Country (1889) as by Ernst von Himmel and Oceanides: A Psychical Novel (1890) also as by von Himmel, both novels being republished in 1892 as by Petersilea. The series cannot be called sf as such, but is interestingly specific about the afterlife containing no Heaven or Hell but a Platonic world whose ...
Begbie, Harold
(1871-1929) UK journalist and author, active from the early 1890s, much of his later, nonfantastic work being published as by A Gentleman with a Duster; his first book publications, the Struwwelpeter sequence comprising The Political Struwwelpeter (coll 1899) and The Struwwelpeter Alphabet (coll 1900), are volumes of Satirical verse illustrated by F Carruthers Gould. Closer to sf are his ...
Bechard, Margaret
(1953- ) US author, usually for a Young Adult audience; her two sf novels for this market are Star Hatchling (1995), in which two young persons discover a lost Alien adolescent, though expectations are soon reversed, for the alien is a human, the planet she is lost on is not Earth, and her young rescuers are not human; and Spacer and Rat (2005), in which young Jack, who is a Spacer ...
Nevins, Albert J
(1915-1997) US Catholic priest, film director and author, whose Children's SF novel, The Adventures of Pancho of Peru (1953), describes the brave behaviour of the eponymous native, who has connections with a Lost World deep in the mountains. It was published as part of the didactic Adventures with a Purpose series. [JC]
Amazing Engine
Role Playing Game (1993). Tactical Studies Rules (TSR). Designed by David Cook. / One of a range of generic role playing systems intended to compete with GURPS (1986), Amazing Engine had a simple set of core rules, with more detailed setting specific mechanics included in the various worldbooks. The system allowed players to transform a character designed for one setting into an analogous persona ...
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 ...