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Wednesday 11 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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Coates, Robert M
(1897-1973) US author, primarily associated throughout his career with The New Yorker, for which he worked, and to which he contributed many stories. He is mainly of interest to the sf field for his first novel, The Eater of Darkness (1926; rev 1929), which, written before he had fully assimilated the sometimes restrictive urbanity of The New Yorker style, quite brilliantly applies a wide arsenal of literary devices and references, some of the more nihilistic ...
Verner, Gerald
Best-known pseudonym of UK author John Robert Stuart Pringle (1897-1980), who also wrote as by Donald Stuart, under which name he wrote forty-four Sexton Blake tales beginning in 1927, and as by Thane Leslie; along with these primary pseudonyms, he apparently also wrote as by Derwent Steele and Nigel Vane. The Vampire Men (1941) is a Vampire thriller. Most of Verner's work consisted of crime thrillers, though some fantastic content is ...
4: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Film (2007). Twentieth Century Fox in association with Constantin Films and Marvel Studios presents a 1492 Entertainment/Bernd Eichinger production. Directed by Tim Story. Written by Don Payne and Mark Frost; story by John Turman and Frost, based on the Marvel Comic by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Cast includes Jessica Alba, Michael Chiklis, Chris Evans, Laurence ...
Emerson, Jim
Pseudonym of Croatian-born psychologist, librarian, editor and author James Mladenovic (1960- ), in US from 1963. He is of sf interest primarily for an ambitious attempt to recount the History of SF from the beginnings of American Genre SF, the first iteration of this project being a Semiprozine, Futures Past (1992-1994) (which see for ...
Sheehan, Perley Poore
(1875-1943) US screenwriter, journalist and author responsible for much magazine fiction, though he was initially best known for a play, Efficiency: A Play in One Act (August 1917 McClure's Magazine; vt "Blood and Iron: A Play in One Act" October 1917 Strand; 1917 chap) with Robert Hobart Davis (1869-1942), in which a German Mad Scientist transforms the fatally wounded ...
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 ...