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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 ...
Star Trek: First Contact
Film (1996). Paramount. Produced by Rick Berman. Directed by Jonathan Frakes. Written by Brannon Braga and Ronald D Moore, based on a story by Berman, Braga, and Moore. Cast includes Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Gates McFadden, Marina Sirtis, Alice Krige, James Cromwell and Alfre Woodard. 111 minutes. ...
Garfield, Richard
(1963- ) US Game designer with a PhD in combinatorial mathematics, inducted into the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design Hall of Fame in 1998. Garfield is perhaps the epitome of game designer as celebrity mathematician. He is famous primarily for having invented the modern Collectible Card Game in 1993 with the release of his first published game, Magic: The Gathering (see ...
Lee, Jody A
(1958- ) American artist. After graduating from San Francisco's Academy of Art College in 1980, she relocated to New York City to pursue a career as a professional artist. She was soon painting a number of book covers for DAW Books, including books by Mercedes Lackey and Jo Clayton, two authors she has long been associated with. Indeed, she was especially well suited to ...
Amazing Colossal Man, The
Film (1957). Malibu, American International Pictures. Produced and directed by Bert I Gordon. Written by Mark Hanna and Gordon, from a story by Gordon. Cast includes Cathy Downs, William Hudson and Glenn Langan. 81 minutes. Black and white. / An attempt to duplicate the commercially successful pathos of The Incredible Shrinking Man ...
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 ...