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Sunday 16 August 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 10 August 2026
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Crowley, John
(1942-2026) US teacher and author who also worked in documentary films and television for some time beginning in 1966. His sf novels have had a considerable impact on the field, and his fantasies established him as a figure whose work courteously but deeply stretched the boundaries of genre literature. / His first novel, The Deep (1975), is set on a flat discworld resting on a pillar that extends beyond measurement into the circumambient galactic Deep, in which very few stars ...
Return of Doctor X, The
US film (1939). Warner Bros. Directed by Vincent Sherman. Written by Lee Katz, based on "The Surgeon's Secret" (12 January 1935 Thriller; vt "The Doctor's Secret" 30 July 1938 Detective Fiction Weekly) by William J Makin. Cast includes Humphrey Bogart, John Litel, Lya Lys, Dennis Morgan, Wayne Morris and Joan Vance. 63 minutes. Black and white. / Reporter Walter Garrett (Morris) insists he discovered actress Angela Merrova (Lys) dead ...
City of Heroes
Videogame (2004). Cryptic Studios (CS). Platforms: Win (2004); Mac (2009). / City of Heroes was a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, set in a "four colour" Superhero world similar to that of classic Comic books from DC Comics and ...
Hanstein, Otfrid von
(1869-1959) German actor and author, prolific in various genres; of his sf novels, several were published in America in the 1930s, not in book form but translated under the aegis of Hugo Gernsback for Wonder Stories and Wonder Stories Quarterly. The translated stories are: Die Farm des Verschollenen: Phantatischer Roman (1924; trans ...
Marryat, Florence
(1833-1899) UK author, playwright, editor (of London Society magazine 1872-1876) and actress, daughter of the naval officer and pioneering sea-story author Captain Frederick Marryat (1792-1848); now perhaps best remembered for her espousal of Spiritualism as recorded in such late nonfiction works as There Is No Death (1891) and The Spirit World (1894) [not listed below]. She was a prolific author of sensational novels from 1865 onwards, also publishing both ...
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 ...