SF Encyclopedia Home Page
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
Sponsor of the day: The Telluride Institute
Vardeman, Robert E
(1947- ) US author whose ruthless productivity – he has written about sixty books since his first sf novel, Pleasure Planet (1974 as by Edward E George; vt Outer Space Embrace 1978 as by Monica Mounds; vt Janet's Sex Planet 1980 as by Carrie Onn; vt Intergalactic Orgy 1983 as Obie Khan; vt Sexual Coquette 1985 dos as by Marv Elous; vt Playing with Desire 1986 as by Fred Sparkrock) ...
Medieval Futurism
Term coined by John Carnell in his introduction to New Writings in SF 12 (anth 1967) to describe a contemporary trend of sf containing "Future technologies, often on other planets, but with heavy overtones of the Middle Ages feudal systems as the governing bodies." (see History in SF) Examples cited by Carnell include L Sprague de Camp's Divide and Rule (April-May 1939 ...
Fisher, Nancy
(? - ) US author of medical thrillers featuring drugs and techniques marginally in advance of what was available at the point of publication; Vital Parts (1993), for instance, concerns an Immortality Drug; Special Treatment (1996) is about a fitness-enhancement regime beyond the current professional sports medicine; Code Red (1998) and Code Blue ...
Secret 6, The
Pulp Magazine. Four issues, October 1934 to April 1935, from Popular Publications. Editor: Rogers Terrill. / Written by prolific pulp author Robert J Hogan, The Secret 6 dealt with the adventures of King (no first name ever given) and his five associates, who fight crime after King has been framed for a murder. After breaking him out of ...
Duel
Made-for-tv film (1971). ABC/Universal. Directed by Steven Spielberg. Written by Richard Matheson, based on his original story "Duel" (April 1971 Playboy). Cast includes Eddie Firestone, Charles Steel and Dennis Weaver. 75 minutes; expanded and released outside the USA as a feature film, 90 minutes. Colour. / Universal Studios were so impressed by this television film directed by ...
Clute, John
(1940- ) Canadian critic, editor and author, in the UK from 1969; married to Judith Clute from 1964, partner of Elizabeth Hand since 1996. He began to publish work of genre interest with an sf-tinged poem "Carcajou Lament" in Triquarterly for Winter 1960 [ie Autumn 1959]; he began consistently publishing sf reviews in his "New Fiction" column for the Toronto Star (1966-1967), and later in ...