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Monday 13 July 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.
Site updated on 13 July 2026
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Harpur, Patrick
(1950- ) UK author in whose first novel, The Serpent's Circle (1985; vt Serpent's Circle 1985), a secret monastic order called The Little Brothers of the Apostles unleashes its old Religion against the Roman Catholic Church; the Little Brothers, a cohort of Secret Masters, do not themselves reappear in Harpur's work, though a sense of arcane empowerment irradiates his presentation ...
Maxwell, Glyn
(1962- ) UK playwright, librettist, academic, poet and author, known mostly since he became active in the early 1980s for his Poetry; his first title of interest is Time's Fool: A Tale in Verse (2000), a book-length narrative poem which replays the legend of the Flying Dutchman [see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below] through the experiences of its teenage ...
Gallagher, Matt
(1983- ) US former soldier and author whose military experiences are reflected in a blog, Kaboom: A Soldier's War Journal (2007-2008), which was shut down by his superiors; in his first book, Kaboom: Embracing the Suck in a Savage Little War (2010), a memoir; and in his first novel, Youngblood (2016), a complex nonfantastic rendering of America's intimate involvement in Iraq. Gallagher is of sf interest for his second novel, ...
It Came from Outer Space
Film (1953). Universal. Directed by Jack Arnold. Written by Harry Essex, based on a screen treatment by Ray Bradbury. Cast includes Richard Carlson, Charles Drake and Barbara Rush. 80 minutes. 3-D. Black and white. / This was Arnold's, and Universal's, first venture into the sf/Horror genre; it was also the first sf film to exploit a desert location (here the Mojave Desert), and the ...
Derrick, Katherine Ross
(? -? ) UK author whose only known novel, A Maid from Mars (?1923 chap), describes the experiences of a young female Martian (see Mars) in her attempts to establish a cultural bond with humans. [JC]
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 ...