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Friday 4 September 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 31 August 2026
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Murray, Will
Working name of US author William Patrick Murray (1953-2026), who showed an interest throughout his career in Superheroes of the Pulp tradition (on which he was a known authority) such as Doc Savage, about which figure he wrote the nonfiction Secrets of Doc Savage (1981 chap). In this context he had been literary agent for Lester Dent's estate since 1979. ...
Mahmud, Mustafa
(1921-2009) Egyptian philosopher, journalist and author. As a child from a middle-class family, he was able to enter university and study medicine; due to illness which hospitalized him for two years during his studies, he became interested in philosophy and religion. He started contributing to leading Egyptian Magazines and journals in the late 1940s and in 1960 left his medical career to devote himself fully to writing. He wrote some 80 books, of which the ...
O'Brien, Tim
(1946- ) US author best known for anguished accounts of the Vietnam War, including the novel Going After Cacciato (1978); of sf interest is The Nuclear Age (1985), set in a Near Future America in 1995 anxiety-ridden by anticipations of nuclear war. The protagonist, an ex-paramilitary radical now middle-aged, goes to ground, where he digs a useless bomb shelter against the coming ...
Harper, Olive
Pseudonym of US poet, journalist and author Ellen Burrell D'Apery (1842-1915) for at least two tales with some sf interest: The Show Girl: Or, the Cap of Fortune (1902), in which an Underground realm inhabited by a Lost Race of Immortal Greeks with Magic powers is found under Cyprus; and The Sociable Ghost [for subtitle see Checklist below] ...
Beyond the Time Barrier
US film (1960; vt The War of 1995). Miller-Consolidated Pictures, American International Pictures. Produced by Robert Clarke. Directed by Edgar G Ulmer. Written by Arthur C Pierce from his original story. Mutant make-up by Jack Pierce. Cast includes Stephen Bekassy, Robert Clarke, Don Flournoy (Mutant), Vladimir Sokoloff, Darlene Tompkins and Ariane Ulmer (credited as Arianne Arden). 75 minutes. ...
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 ...