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Saturday 6 December 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 1 December 2025
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Stoppard, Tom
Working name of Czech-born playwright and screenwriter Tomáš Straussler (1937-2025), in the UK since 1946, the Stoppard surname being acquired from his stepfather when his widowed mother remarried in 1945. His early dramatic work was characterized by extravagant wit and wordplay, and an Absurdist application of logic to surreal or insane situations. Following the broadcast of several Radio plays, his ...
Christopher, John
Principal working name of UK author Sam Youd (1922-2012), whose birth forename was Sam rather than Samuel; he adopted the first name Christopher on confirmation into the Church of England, but was never so called by intimates although many sources give his full name as Christopher Samuel Youd. He was active in sf Fandom (see The Fantast; The Satellite) before World War Two, in which he served; ...
Mutations
Film (1973). Getty Picture Corp/Columbia. Directed by Jack Cardiff. Written by Robert D Weinbach, Edward Mann. Cast includes Tom Baker, Michael Dunn, Julie Ege and Donald Pleasence. 92 minutes. Colour. / In this scientifically ludicrous UK film a Mad Scientist (Pleasence) attempts to combine plant with animal life, aided by the dwarf owner of a carnival freak-show (Dunn), who obtains human guinea-pigs for his experiments and exhibits the results. Tom ...
Hunt, Samantha
(1971- ) US author who began publishing work of genre interest with "Famous Men" in Trampoline (anth 2003) edited by Kelly Link. Of sf interest is The Invention of Everything Else (2008), whose chambermaid protagonist meets Nikola Tesla in New York, where he was living in seclusion in the Hotel New Yorker in January 1943, at the very end of his long life; he tells her his life story, ...
de la Warr, George
(1904-1969) UK pioneer of a controversial alternative healing therapy involving "radionics" devices. He is best known in sf circles for his Pseudoscientific "Hieronymus machine" which enthralled John W Campbell Jr in the 1950s. This supposed Psionics machine had an elusive tactile output (the varying stickiness of a rubber pad) which was generally regarded as too subjective to be meaningful. ...
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 ...