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Sunday 8 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 6 February 2026
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Sallis, James
(1944-2026) US musician, poet and author, briefly active in New Worlds during its Michael Moorcock-directed New-Wave phase; he began to publish work of genre interest in this context with "Kazoo" (August 1967 New Worlds) and co-edited the magazine 1968-1969. His clearly acknowledged models in the French avant garde and the gnomic brevity of much of his work ...
Sullivan, Michael J
(1961- ) US author, well-known for self-published work notable for its professional production standards, as well as work increasingly published through traditional outlets, his first (self-published) release being a short story, The Viscount and the Witch (2011 ebook), which became part of the long sequence of fantasy tales under the overall title The Riyria Universe, beginning with The Crown tower (2013) [titles not listed below]. A ...
Dixon, John
(1969- ) US author who began publishing work of genre interest with "Halves Interrupted" in Barbaric Yawp for December 1997; most of his work has been horror, including the Carl Freeman sequence beginning with Phoenix Island (2014). Of sf interest is The Point (2018), a Young Adult tale which unites tropes from the Space Cadet juveniles from the previous century and the ...
Monomolecular Wire
An ultra-strong and ultra-thin monofilament occasionally found in sf and typically consisting of a single, very strongly bonded molecule, though other explanations may be given. Obvious real-world precursors are synthetic fibres such as nylon monofilament; the film The Man in the White Suit (1951) extrapolates from nylon to the nearly uncuttable monofilament used to make the dirt-proof and tear-proof garment of the title. In the same ...
Whitmore, Charles
(1945- ) US author whose Winter's Daughter: The Saying of Signe Ragnhilds-Datter (1984) is set in the Near Future at some point after a nuclear World War Three has failed to end civilization entirely; various strategies for survival are tested in Africa, America and (it is from here that the protagonist speaks) Norway. [JC]
Robinson, Roger
(1943- ) UK computer programmer, bibliographer and publisher, active in UK Fandom for many years. The Writings of Henry Kenneth Bulmer (1983 chap; rev 1984 chap) is an exhaustive Bibliography of one of the most prolific sf writers, Kenneth Bulmer, and Who's Hugh?: An SF Reader's Guide to Pseudonyms (1987) is similarly exhaustive in its ...