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Wednesday 19 February 2025
Welcome to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Fourth Edition. Some sample entries appear below. Click here for the Introduction; here for the masthead; here for 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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Moore, Chris
(1947-2025) Prolific UK artist, known to the public primarily for his hard-edged treatment of Hard SF subjects, although in fact he produced covers in different styles for all sorts of other genres as well, including illustrations of record sleeves for artists as diverse as Rod Stewart, Fleetwood Mac, Status Quo and Pentangle. What impressed most about Moore's sf art was not just the photographic realism but the sense of scale, achieved largely through a ...
Chappell, George S
(1877-1946) US architect and author, author of some Broadway musicals, well known in the 1920s as a humorist. Most of his work of genre interest was written as by Walter E Traprock; he also published essays on architectural subjects as by Tsquare. As Traprock, he is best known for the Kawa sequence of spoof travelogues beginning with The Cruise of the Kawa: Wanderings in the South Seas (1921) as by Walter E Traprock, and other similar titles. ...
On the Beach
1. BBC Radio dramatization by Mike Walker in the Classic Serial anthology programme, as On the Beach (1957). / 2. Film (1959). Lomitas Productions/United Artists. Directed by Stanley Kramer. Written by John Paxton, based on On the Beach (1957) by Nevil Shute. Cast includes Fred Astaire, Guy Doleman, Ava Gardner, Gregory Peck and Anthony Perkins. 134 minutes. Black and white. / ...
Robbins, David L
(1954- ) US academic and author, most of whose work is nonfantastic and is set in World War Two. Of sf interest is the Souls to Keep sequence comprising Souls to Keep (1998) and The Betrayal Game (2008), which begins in an Alternate History version of World War Two whose Jonbar Point is the assassination of President Roosevelt; the ...
Thunderbirds
UK animated-puppet tv series (1965-1966). An AP Films Production for ATV/ITC. Created Sylvia and Gerry Anderson. Produced by Gerry Anderson (season 1), Reg Hill (season 2). Writers included Dennis Spooner, Alan Fennell, Alan Pattillo. Directors included David Lane, David Elliott, Desmond Saunders, Pattillo. Model effects supervised by Derek Meddings. 2 seasons, 32 50-minute episodes (re-edited in the USA so that each episode occupied two half-hour timeslots). Colour. / This animated ...
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 ...