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Tuesday 14 January 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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Dickinson, Peter
(1927-2015) Northern-Rhodesia born author, in UK from 1935, father of John Dickinson; married from 1992 until his death to Robin McKinley, with whom he collaborated on the Elementals fantasy sequence [listed below]; assistant editor of the humorous magazine Punch from 1952 to 1969. Dickinson was initially best known for his adult fiction, in particular detective stories, beginning with the ...
Banks, David
(1951- ) UK actor who played the Cyberleader (1982-1988) in the television series Doctor Who, for which series he wrote a "biography" tied to his role, Doctor Who: Cybermen (1988; rev 1990), which he adapted into a series of radio cassettes (1989-1990); more recently, he wrote a novel tied to the series, Doctor Who: The New Adventures: Iceberg (1993). [JC]
Xtro
Film (1982). Ashley Productions/Amalgamated Film Enterprises. Directed by Harry Bromley Davenport. Written by Iain Cassie, Robert Smith, based on a screenplay by Michel Parry, Davenport. Cast includes Danny Brainin, Maryam d'Abo, Simon Nash, Philip Sayer and Bernice Stegers. 86 minutes. Colour. / UK sf/Horror exploitation movie in which a man, Sam Phillips (Sayer), is kidnapped by a UFO. Three ...
Keegan, Mel
Pseudonym of an unidentified author (? - ) resident in South Australia, whose fiction as Keegan has normally been written explicitly for gay markets; his sf includes the NARC sequence beginning with NARC 1: Death's Head (1991) and ending with NARC 5: Aphelion (2007), Space Operas featuring two gay paramilitaries in the Narcotics and Riot Control whose minds are ...
Berger, Thomas
(1924-2014) US author active from around 1951, and who began to publish work of genre interest with "Professor Hyde" for Playboy in December 1961. Though much of his work is fantastic, he remained best known for novels perceived as nongeneric, like the meta-Western epic Little Big Man (1964), which combines farce and Fabulation, with the eponymous Little Big Man, who is 111, narrating his tale with supernatural vigour. ...
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 ...