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Friday 13 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
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Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens
Film (2015). Lucasfilm/Bad Robot/Truenorth Productions. Directed by J J Abrams. Written by Lawrence Kasdan and Abrams. Cast includes John Boyega, Daniel Craig (uncredited), Adam Driver, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, Domhnall Gleeson, Mark Hamill, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong'o, Daisy Ridley, Andy Serkis, Max von Sydow. 3D. 135 minutes. Colour. / This smooth and splendiferous resumption of the ...
Sladek, John T
(1937-2000) US author who spent two decades in the UK from 1966, becoming involved in the UK New-Wave movement centred on Michael Moorcock's New Worlds, and co-editing with Pamela Zoline Ronald Reagan: The Magazine of Poetry (2 issues, 1968 and 1970), where work by both editors, J G Ballard, Thomas M ...
Slater, Henry J
(1879-1963) UK author whose work showed the influence of H G Wells in both Ship of Destiny (1951), where Post-Holocaust survivors sail across a drowned Europe, and The Smashed World (1952), set 3000 years hence in a World State which is destroyed by a reborn Napoleon. Some of Slater's effects oddly prefigure the afterlife fantasies of Philip José Farmer. ...
Ni Kuang
Main writing name of Ni Cong (1935-2022), a Chinese author whose life began unpromisingly as a teenage drop-out, before his swift rise through the ranks of the Communist Party security police. Accused of counter-revolutionary activities, he fled to Hong Kong in 1957 and embraced anti-Communist fiction with all the zeal of a convert. His first professional sale, the non-genre Huomai ["Buried Alive"] (December 1957 Keung Sheung Daily News) was a grotesque ...
Berkley Showcase, The
Original Anthology series from Berkley Books, consisting of The Berkley Showcase: New Writings in Science Fiction and Fantasy, Vol. 1 (anth 1980), The Berkley Showcase: New Writings in Science Fiction and Fantasy, Vol. 2 (anth 1980), The Berkley Showcase: Vol 3 (anth 1981) without the usual subtitle on the title page, although it appears on the cover, ...
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 ...