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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
Sponsor of the day: The Telluride Institute
Runaway
Film (1984). Tri-Star/Delphi III. Directed by Michael Crichton. Written by Crichton. Cast includes Kirstie Alley, Cynthia Rhodes, Tom Selleck and Gene Simmons. 97 minutes. Colour. / Crichton again exercises his love/hate relationship with Machines in this predictable but exciting thriller about the policeman Sergeant Jack R Ramsay (Selleck), partnered with Karen Thompson (Rhodes) whose job it is to deal with defective ...
Garvin, Richard M
(1934-1980) US author whose main career was in advertising. His two sf novels, both in collaboration with Edmond G Addeo, are The FORTEC Conspiracy (1968) and The Talbott Agreement (1968). In the former, a crashlanded Spaceship with five sick Aliens aboard infects Earth with a deadly disease; the latter novel is borderline sf with espionage elements involving ...
M'Guire, Sean
(? -? ) UK author of two Lost Race novels of interest. Spider Island (1929), set on an Island in the South Pacific, features the discovery of a range of Monsters under the sway of a race of web-footed amphibians. Beast or Man? (1930) combines Lost Race and feral child modes (remotely evoking Tarzan in its beginning ...
Millar, Martin
(1956- ) Scottish author whose first novel, Milk, Sulphate and Alby Starvation (1987), is a gonzo depiction of downmarket countercultural life in 1980s Britain, edging close to the fantastic in its depiction of intersections between Comics, Drugs and Videogames; it does not, however quite venture over the borderline. Lux the Poet (1988), set in a very similar ...
Westworld
Film (1973). Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Directed and written by Michael Crichton. Cast includes Richard Benjamin, James Brolin, Yul Brynner, Alan Oppenheimer, Linda Gaye Scott. 88 minutes. Colour. / Westworld is set in a Near Future enclave somewhere in the western deserts of America, where the Delos corporation has recently constructed a trio of interconnected Theme Parks, ...
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 ...