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Wednesday 18 February 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 16 February 2026
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Pedersen, Ted
(1938-2010) US screenwriter and author who scripted a 1978 episode of The Bionic Woman (1976-1978) and continued his Television career with scripts for Jason of Star Command (1978-1980), the animated Flash Gordon (1979-1980) and many more. He is the author of several novel Ties set in the ...
Billy the Kid
Pseudonym of American cowboy and outlaw William H Bonney (1859-1881), who was probably born Henry McCarty, becoming Bonney for unknown reasons in 1877, perhaps because his mother remarried, or to dodge arrest; a thief who shot other men in the back. He was also involved in range wars, and possibly originally cast in heroic roles because he featured in situations which – in terms of the cauldron of story of the Western, which was just beginning to boil – ...
Murray, James
(? - ) US author of sf interest for his Steampunk tale Frankenstein: The Illuminatus Complex (2012), in which Captain Nemo (see Jules Verne) identifies with the Frankenstein Monster (see Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; Or the New Prometheus, 1818) and searches for him ...
Bubuki Buranki
Japanese animated tv series (2016; vt BBK/BRNK). Sanzigen. Directed by Daizen Komatsuda. Written by Jirō Ishii and Yukinori Kitajima. Voice cast includes Megumi Han, Shizuka Ishigami, Hisako Kanemoto, Yūsuke Kobayashi, Mikako Komatsu, Ari Ozawa, Sōma Saitō, Kazuhiro Yamaji and Ryoka Yuzuki. 24 24-minute episodes. Colour. / Long ago, Alien Mecha called Buranki fell to Earth. Some ...
Templeton, Charles
(1915-2001) Canadian newspaper editor, evangelist, broadcaster and author whose novels of sf interest were written long after he had lost his Christian faith. In Act of God (1977) the skeleton of Jesus of Nazareth is found, a discovery which disrupts the world's Christian Religions. A Near Future Utopia is falteringly created in World of One (1988), with evangelism exercising a ...
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 ...