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Thursday 16 July 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 14 July 2026
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Atwood, Margaret
(1939- ) Canadian poet and author, some of whose poetry – like Speeches for Doctor Frankenstein (1966 chap) – hints at sf content, but whose interest in the form as a prose writer only became evident (as did her dis-ease at being identified as a writer of sf) with the publication of The Handmaid's Tale (1985), which won the Governor General's Award in Canada and the first ...
Final Countdown, The
Film (1980). Bryna Company/United Artists. Directed by Don Taylor. Written by David Ambrose, Gerry Davis, Thomas Hunter, Peter Powell, based on a story by Hunter, Powell, Ambrose. Cast includes Kirk Douglas, Charles Durning, James Farentino, Katharine Ross and Martin Sheen. 105 minutes. Colour. / The Nimitz, a (real) aircraft carrier on manoeuvres off Hawaii in 1980, is caught in a strange storm which turns out to be a time-warp (see ...
Tedford, William G
(1942- ) US author whose sf activities long seemed to have been restricted to the publication, in a single year, of not only Silent Galaxy (1981), a singleton which centres on survivors of an Invasion of Earth, but also the three books of the Timequest sequence comprising Time Quest #1: Rashanyn Dark (1981), Time Quest #2: Hydrabyss Red (1981) and Time Quest #3: Nemydia Deep ...
Adventures into Darkness
US Comic (1952-1954). Standard Comics. 10 issues (numbered #5-#14). Artists include Gene Fawcette, Rocco "Rocke" Mastroserio, George Roussos, Mike Sekowsky and Alex Toth. Scriptwriters include Jack Katz, Irwin Shapiro and Bill Woolfolk. 36 pages, each issue usually containing four longer strips, plus a few shorter ones (some claiming to be non-fiction, such as an account from 1348 of "sulphurous fire" bursting from the ground at ...
Robinett, Stephen
(1941-2004) US author and lawyer who began publishing sf as Tak Hallus (apparently Persian for "pen name") with "Minitalent" in Analog for March 1969; most of his shorter work is assembled in Projections (coll 1979), where a sharp wit is allowed free and satirical play. Robinett's first novel, Mindwipe! (December 1969 Analog as by Tak Hallus; exp 1976) as by Steve Hahn, is unexceptional, but Stargate ...
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 ...