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Saturday 14 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 9 February 2026
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Carver, Jeffrey A
(1949-2026) US author who began publishing sf with "... Of No Return" in Fiction Magazine for 1974. His first novel, Seas of Ernathe (1976), which serves as an introduction to the loose Star Rigger sequence of Space Operas, showed early signs of a love of plot and thematic complexity which would take him some time, and several novels, to control. The continuation, Star Rigger's Way (1978), for instance, combines quest ...
Most Dangerous Man Alive, The
Film (1958). Trans-Global/Columbia. Directed by Allan Dwan. Written by James Leicester, Phillip Rock, based on a story by Rock, Michael Pate. Cast includes Anthony Caruso, Debra Paget, Ron Randell and Elaine Stewart. 82 minutes, cut to 76 minutes. Black and white. / In this unusual blend of sf and crime movie, a framed gangster (Randell) escapes from Prison and hides out in the desert, where he is caught up in a nuclear test (see ...
People Who Own the Dark, The
Spanish/US film (1976; 1980 US). Original title Ultimo deseo; vt Planeta Ciego. Cinematic Releasing Corporation (US). Produced by Jorge Luis Renena Tomayo (Spain), Sean S Cunningham (US). Directed by Léon Klimovsky. Written by Gabriel Moreno Burgos (credited as Gabriel Burgos), Vicenta Aranda and Joaquim Jordà. Cast includes Alberto de Mendoza, Teresa Gimpera, Nadiuska, Paul Naschy (credited as Paul MacKay), Tomás Picó and Julia Saly. 94 ...
Brown, Slater
(1896-1997) US author, perhaps best known as "B", E E Cummings's cellmate in his famous memoir of World War One, The Enormous Room (1922). Brown's own writing career was relatively desultory, though he published at least two books of genre interest: The Talking Skyscraper (1945) is a children's tale about a New York skyscraper dissatisfied with its (his) lot; Spaceward Bound (1955) is a ...
Al-Khalili, Jim
Working name of Iraqi-born broadcaster, physicist, academic and author Jameel Sadik Al-Khalili (1962- ), in the UK from 1979; several of his nonfiction publications, beginning with Black Holes, Wormholes and Time Machines (1999), have been addressed to the intelligent general reader. He is of sf interest for his first novel, Sunfall (2019), describes a Near Future Disaster perhaps ...
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 ...