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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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Voss Bark, Conrad
(1913-2000) UK journalist and author, a well-known parliamentary correspondent for the BBC; most of his fiction was nonfantastic, including the William Holmes thrillers about a troubleshooter for the British government [not listed]. His first novel, Sealed Entrance (1947) as C Voss-Bark, is a Lost Race tale set in the hinterlands of Albania. The Big Wave: The Day London Collapsed (1979) is set in ...
Yates, Alan G
(1923-1985) UK-born author, in Australia from 1948, who was best known for his long series of detections under the House Name Carter Brown, writing about 150 volumes as Brown, sometimes at a rate of twenty or more a year; he wrote also as Tom Conway, Dennis Sinclair, Paul Valdez and Peter Yates. He began to write sf – usually to rigid formula – with some short stories around 1950, with G C Bleeck (see Belli Luigi), ...
Extraterrestrial
In sf Terminology, this is typically a noun denoting a creature (usually intelligent) from beyond Terra; that is, from off Earth. When used as a noun, and occasionally in its adjectival mode, the word may be shortened to "et", "e-t" or "ET" (pronounced "eetee"). Of course the adjectival form need not imply life or consciousness – a meteorite, by definition, comes from extraterrestrial regions – but neither does it exclude ...
Haddix, Margaret Peterson
(1964- ) US author who began to publish work of genre interest with a Young Adult tale, Running Out of Time (1995), and who is best known for her Shadow Children sequence of Young Adult sf novels, beginning with Among the Hidden (1998) and ending with Among the Free (2006); set in an overpopulated world (see Overpopulation) ...
Captain America: The First Avenger
Film (2011). Paramount Pictures and Marvel Entertainment present a Marvel Studios production. Directed by Joe Johnston. Written by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely, based on the Marvel Comics by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. Cast includes Hayley Atwell, Dominic Cooper, Chris Evans, Tommy Lee Jones, Sebastian Stan, Stanley Tucci and Hugo Weaving. 124 minutes. Colour, 3D (converted). / Joss ...
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 ...