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Thursday 10 September 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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Warrick, Patricia S
(1925-2023) US academic, most of whose work has concentrated upon the themes explicated in the book version of her PhD thesis, The Cybernetic Imagination in Science Fiction (1980), an impressively thorough study that concentrates on the work of Isaac Asimov, including an analysis of the Encyclopedia Galactica which serves as Hari Seldon's electronic bible in the Foundation series; her analysis is supplemented by ...
Claudy, Carl H
(1879-1957) US journalist (for the New York Herald) and author, principally of nonfiction on Masonic themes, photography and popular science; for some years he was the Washington correspondent of Scientific American, and he served as Executive Secretary of the Masonic Service Association from 1929 until his death. His first story was "Wanted – An Explanation" (14 May 1899 Washington Post), a ghost story. He became highly active in the ...
Lathe of Heaven, The
Made-for-tv film (1980). TV Laboratory WNET/13, New York, for PBS. Produced and directed by David R Loxton and Fred Baryzk. Teleplay Roger E Swaybill, Diane English, based on The Lathe of Heaven (March-May 1971 Amazing; 1971) by Ursula K Le Guin. Cast includes Margaret Avery, Kevin Conway and Bruce Davison. 120 minutes. Colour. / Made outside the commercial system for Public Television, this may be the ...
Firth, N Wesley
Working name of UK author Norman Firth (1920-1949), who in fact had no middle name. He began his career during World War Two writing Pulp Westerns and thrillers. He wrote stories variously as Rice Ackman, Earl Ellison, Jackson Evans, Leslie Halward, Olga Hendry, Joel Johnson and perhaps other names; his first sf publication was almost certainly "Obscene Parade" (1946 Weird Story Magazine #2). His first novel, Terror Strikes ...
Astronaut's Wife, The
Film (1999). New Line Cinema/Mad Chance. Directed and written by Rand Ravich. Cast includes Nick Cassavetes, Johnny Depp, Samantha Eggar, Clea Duvall, Joe Morton, Donna Murphy, Charlize Theron. 109 minutes. Colour. / There is little to say about the sad schizophrenic gap between the competent flow of Rand Ravich's direction of The Astronaut's Wife and the lame Cliché-ridden retro-bondage that slowly hamstrings the actual story. This slow ...
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 ...