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Wednesday 11 March 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 9 March 2026
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Scalzi, John
(1969- ) US author and journalist. Born in California, he studied at the University of Chicago (briefly under Saul Bellow) before taking on a career in journalism. He began publishing work of genre interest with "Alien Animal Encounters" in Strange Horizons for 15 October 2001, and soon published his first novel, the Military SF Old Man's War (2005), which ...
Dr Satán y la Magia Negra
["Dr Satan and Black Magic"] Mexican film (1968). Producciones Espada S. de R.L. Directed by Rogelio A. González. Written by José María and Fernández Unsáin. Cast includes Joaquín Cordero and Noé Murayama. 83 minutes. Colour. / A sequel to Dr Satan (1966), this film opens with the Devil King awakening Dr Satan (Cordero) from his rest in Hell (see ...
Sivell, Steven
(? - ) UK author of Cloud Cuckoo Land (2007), set in a surreally bureaucratic unnamed country indistinguishable from England just before a great meteorite hits the planet; the protagonist seeks to board a "vessel" which will survive the Disaster, allowing its passengers to reinhabit a shattered world. In The Godsend (2014 ebook) another pilgrim-like protagonist sets out eastward from ...
Grimes, Lee
(1920-2009) US author whose Ax of Atlantis: A Chandra Smith Adventure (1975) depicts its female secret agent protagonist's attempts to forestall the attempts of a kind of reborn Minos to re-establish the rule of ancient Crete. An earlier Chandra Smith adventure, The Eye of Shiva (1974), seems to have no fantastic content. The premise of Retro Lives (1993) is that a genetic predisposition can generate a Time Loop, ...
Bradbury, Ray
(1920-2012) US screenwriter, poet and author; in 1934 his father, a power lineman who was having trouble gaining employment in Michigan during the Depression, moved with the family to Los Angeles; memories and images of southern California would be central to Bradbury's work, though the small-town Midwest always remained important in his stories. Bradbury discovered sf Fandom in 1937, meeting Ray ...
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 ...