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Tuesday 15 July 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.
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George, Brian
(? - ) UK author in whose sf novel, Atom of Doubt (1959), a fake hormonal treatment which ostensibly makes women irresistible to men turns out to be real, and causes some chaos; there are elements of Satire in the tale. [JC]
Mars Machines
US animated online tv series (2024). Positronish Productions. Created by Lavie Tidhar and Nir Yaniv. Directed, animated and scored by Nir Yaniv. Written by Lavie Tidhar. Cast includes Digger Mesch, Russell Wilcox and Anne Wittman. Seven 4-6 minute episodes. Colour. / Initially conceived by its creators as a sort of Waiting for Godot on Mars, with a clear nod to Thomas M Disch's ...
Maxon, J G
(? - ) US author of two unremarkable Technothrillers, Progeny (1989) and Lethal Delivery (1991). [JC]
Williams, Liz
(1965- ) UK author who began to publish work of genre interest with "A Child of the Dead" in Interzone for September 1997, which was assembled with other early work as The Banquet of the Lords of Night and Other Stories (coll 2004); later stories were assembled as A Glass of Shadow (coll 2011). Her first novel, The Ghost Sister (2001), is set in a lost colony (see ...
Calder, Ritchie
(1906-1982) Scottish journalist, academic and author, active from 1922. He is of relevance to sf for his life-time advocacy of the science-driven creation of a peaceful future (see Futures Studies), from a left standpoint which, always moderate, never led him into any of the twentieth-century ideological bearpits into which the left (and the right) toppled so grimly and so often. His first book, The Birth of the Future (1934), is significant ...
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 ...