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Thursday 22 January 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.
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von Däniken, Erich
(1935-2026) Swiss author of a series of purportedly nonfiction books, beginning with Erinnerungen an die Zukunft (1968; trans Michael Heron as Chariots of the Gods? 1969), which, based on a mass of often suspect and internally inconsistent data, argues that the Earth was visited by at least one Alien spacefaring race before and at the dawn of historical time; thus, for example, the Great Pyramid of ...
Adams, Scott
(1957-2026) US author and cartoonist best known for the Dilbert strip published from 1989, which when at its best superbly (in terms of concept and accuracy of Satire rather than quality of drawing) satirized contemporary office life and corporate incompetence. As with most ambitious modern comic strips, it segues frequently into sf and fantasy tropes – such as Robot office workers, wish-fulfilling ...
Russo, Richard Paul
(1954- ) US author who began publishing sf with "Firebird Suite" for Amazing in 1981. His first novel, Inner Eclipse (1988), is a strongly atmospheric tale, illuminated by striking visual images, which describes a search for Alien intelligence on a jungle world whose major industry is the export of an extremely dangerous recreational Drug. The protagonist, an empath (see ...
Baldwin, Bill
Working name of US author Merl William Baldwin Jr (1935-2015), known mainly for the efficient Helmsman adventure-sf Space Opera sequence, whose plots are deployed on a galactic scale, initially beginning with The Helmsman (1985; rev vt The Helmsman: A Special Director's Cut 2004) and closing with The Defiance (1996); a late addition to the series is The Turning Tide (2011). Proof copies of ...
Robots [performance]
Performance (2009). Produced by Le Voyage Extraordinaire. Directed and conceived by Christian Denisart. Set design by Gilbert Maire; costume design by Cécile Collet; music by Lee Maddeford; choreography by Corinne Rochet and Nicholas Pettit. Cast includes Laurence Iseli and Branch Worsham. / Robots is an amalgam of dramatic musical performance and dance Theatre. The production premiered on 1 May 2009 at the Théâtre Barnabe in ...
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 ...