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Tuesday 12 May 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 11 May 2026
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Suzuki Kōji
(1957-2026) Japanese author and essayist, largely known in English through the Cinema adaptations of several of his books, the international success of which obscured his wide-ranging domestic output. His horror and Equipoisal fiction proceeded in tandem with a wide array (not listed here) of books on young fatherhood and occasional works on motorcycle travel. He was also the translator of Simon Brett's ...
Close Encounters of the Third Kind – The Special Edition
Film (1980). Credits as for Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). 132 minutes. Colour. / This slightly shorter, re-edited version of Spielberg's huge 1977 success, which contains some new footage, represents a curious piece of cinematic history. Many critics saw it as inferior to the original, though the idea was that Spielberg now had so much commercial clout that he could, at ...
Moriarty, Chris
(1968- ) US author whose Spin sequence of high-tech Space Operas – comprising Spin State (2003), Spin Control (2006), which won the Philip K Dick Award in 2007, and Ghost Spin (2013) – expertly embeds genuinely hard Hard SF concepts in a narrative dominated by a fast-mouthed female protagonist named Li with ...
Holt, Robert Lawrence
(1939- ) US author of Technothrillers whose Good Friday (1987), set in the Near Future, describes the Soviet invasion of Saudi Arabian oilfields on the sacred day of the title; in Peacemaker (1991) with Frank R Holt, an AI goes mental, almost causing a Star Wars Disaster. [JC]
Sherrow, C G
(? - ) US author in whose sf novel, Goorg-Chee: A Sci-Fi Quest for Freedom (2003), a human being awakens in a state of Amnesia, along with a number of beings who represent a range of Alien species; some sort of Godgame has clearly commenced. It may be that these various species are being tested for fitness. [JC]
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 ...