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Monday 14 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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Forrest, Maryann
Pseudonym of UK painter, sculptor, designer, librettist and author Polly Hope (1933-2013), in whose Here (Away from it All) (1969; vt Here 1970), visitors and expats caught on a Greek Island after an apocalyptic Future War attempt to deal with the grim Post-Holocaust life in store for them; they do not do well. [JC]
Rowley, Christopher
(1948- ) US author whose career began with efficiently written Military SF novels, beginning with the War for Eternity/Fenrille sequence – The War for Eternity (1983), The Black Ship (1985), The Founder (1989) and To a Highland Nation (1993) – which concentrates on warfare within our solar system, though the inhabitants of at least one outlying ...
President's Analyst, The
Film (1967). Panpiper/Paramount. Written and directed by Theodore J Flicker. Cast includes Godfrey Cambridge, James Coburn, Severn Darden, Joan Delaney, Pat Harrington and Barry McGuire. 104 minutes. Colour. / A psychoanalyst (Coburn), hired to listen to the President's troubles, breaks down under the strain. He takes refuge with a "typical" US family who describe themselves as "militant liberals" (the husband collects guns, the wife takes karate lessons and their son specializes in ...
Parsec
The official SI unit of astronomical distance; the name is a contraction of "parallax-second". The measure was introduced by UK astronomer Herbert Hall Towner (1861-1930). As the Earth travels from one side of the Sun to the other in half a year, parallax makes the position of any comparatively nearby star apparently shift. Using simple trigonometry, from the observed angular displacement of the star's measured position and knowledge of the distance between Earth and Sun the distance of the ...
Crusader from Mars
US Comic (1952). Two issues. Approved Comics, Inc (see Ziff-Davis). Artists include Allen Anderson, Mike Becker, George Roussos, Henry Sharp and Marvin Stein. Four strips per issue (two involving the Crusader from Mars); plus three short items, some science-related (including "Noise! Tomorrow's Secret Weapon"). / On Mars a court finds Tarka guilty of murdering his rival for Zira's ...
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 ...