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Sunday 7 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 ...
Zagreb Film
Zagreb Film was founded in the then Yugoslavia, now Croatia, in 1953. Though it produced many live-action documentaries and feature films, it is mainly known for its stylized animated work, which has been internationally influential, labelled the "Zagreb school of animation" by the French film critic Georges Sadoul. The best known of the Zagreb directors, Dušan Vukotić, referred to a ...
Frank R Paul Award
An sf art award named in memory of Frank R Paul and administered by Ken "Khen" Moore (?1943-2009) and other committee members of the Nashville, Tennessee, Convention Kubla-Khan on behalf of the Nashville Science Fiction Association from 1976 to 1996; each winner also served as the convention's Artist Guest of Honour. The award is noteworthy for the general distinction of its recipients. The physical trophies, made by Moore, took ...
M'Guire, Sean
(? -? ) UK author of two Lost Race novels of interest. Spider Island (1929), set on an Island in the South Pacific, features the discovery of a range of Monsters under the sway of a race of web-footed amphibians. Beast or Man? (1930) combines Lost Race and feral child modes (remotely evoking Tarzan in its beginning ...
Lombardi, Tom
(? - ) US author of a Young Adult novel, My Summer on Earth (2008), in which an Alien named Clint is sent to Earth to persuade another alien, disguised as a film actor whose first name is Clint, to come back home; the tale is spoofish but frequently sharp. [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 ...