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Tuesday 11 November 2025
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 November 2025
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Stein, Benjamin
(1944- ) US actor (as Ben Stein), lawyer, journalist and author, an advocate of intelligent design in Evolution, apparently arguing that a proper understanding of the theory of evolution showed that it led inevitably to Eugenics and the excesses of Nazi Germany. His first novel, On the Brink (1977) with Herbert Stein, depicts a ...
Britz-Cunningham, Scott
(? - ) US radiologist and author whose first novel, the Near Future Code White (2013), traces the attempt of a daring neurosurgeon to implant a Computer into the brain of a blind lad, who will be enabled to see; obstacles mount. Interface (2022) continues thematically from Code White in its examination of the political implications of a neural implant that ...
Night on the Galactic Railroad
Japanese animated film (1985). Original title Ginga Tetsudō no Yoru. Group TAC, Nippon Herald, TV Asahi. Based on the novella by Kenji Miyazawa. Directed by Gisaburo Sugii. Written by Minoru Betsuyaku. Voice cast includes Hidehiro Kikuchi, Kaori Nakahara, Chika Sakamoto and Mayumi Tanaka. 110 minutes. Colour. / A young anthropomorphized cat, Giovanni (Tanaka), is late joining his classmates by the river to ...
Rochon, Esther
(1948- ) Canadian author, born Esther Blackburn, who began publishing sf with "L'Initiateur et les étrangers" ["The Initiator and the Strangers"] for Marie-Françoise in 1964, for which she had tied with Michel Tremblay for first prize in the story section of the Jeunes Auteurs de Radio-Canada competition; she continued publishing stories frequently, and cofounded the journal imagine ... (see ...
Purple Claw, The
US Comic (1953). Minoan Publishing Corp. 3 issues. Artists include Ben Brown and David Gantz. Script writers include Charles Kuhn. 36 pages per issue, with three long strips (all featuring Dr Weir with the Purple Claw), a short text story and 1-2 short strips (some non-fiction). / Dr Jonathan Weir is severely injured when his plane crashes in an African jungle, but is cured by a local witch doctor using the purple claw, which is worn like a gauntlet; his ...
Robinson, Roger
(1943- ) UK computer programmer, bibliographer and publisher, active in UK Fandom for many years. The Writings of Henry Kenneth Bulmer (1983 chap; rev 1984 chap) is an exhaustive Bibliography of one of the most prolific sf writers, Kenneth Bulmer, and Who's Hugh?: An SF Reader's Guide to Pseudonyms (1987) is similarly exhaustive in its ...