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Sunday 7 December 2025
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 1 December 2025
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Stoppard, Tom
Working name of Czech-born playwright and screenwriter Tomáš Straussler (1937-2025), in the UK since 1946, the Stoppard surname being acquired from his stepfather when his widowed mother remarried in 1945. His early dramatic work was characterized by extravagant wit and wordplay, and an Absurdist application of logic to surreal or insane situations. Following the broadcast of several Radio plays, his ...
Sorry to Bother You
Film (2018). Significant Productions, MNM Creative, MACRO, Cinereach, The Space Program. Written and directed by Boots Riley. Cast includes Terry Crews, David Cross, Jermaine Fowler, Danny Glover, Arnie Hammer, Omari Hardwick, Passon Oswalt, LaKeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson and Steven Yeun. 112 minutes. Colour. / "Cash" Green (Stanfield) is struggling in his new role as a telemarketer, until a colleague advises him to use a "white voice", which immediately results in a spike in ...
Fantastic
US Digest-size magazine, companion to Amazing Stories; published by Ziff-Davis (Summer 1952-June 1965), Ultimate Publishing Co. (September 1965-October 1980); edited by Howard Browne (Summer 1952-August 1956), Paul W Fairman (October 1956-November 1958), Cele Goldsmith (December 1958-June 1965; as Cele G ...
Joron, Andrew
(1955- ) US poet, translator and author, much of whose work is coloured by – or directly engages in – sf, and who began to publish Poetry of specifically genre interest with "The Sonic Flowerfall of Primes" for New Worlds #216, September 1979. Titles of interest include A Measure of Calm (1985 chap) with Robert Frazier, Force Fields (coll ...
Flaming, Matthew
(? - ) US author of The Kingdom of Ohio (2009), an Alternate History tale set first in contemporary Los Angeles (see California) and then in a Steampunk-ish New York a century earlier, where a female mathematician, who has arrived there by Time Travel from an extinct independent ...
Clute, John
(1940- ) Canadian critic, editor and author, in the UK from 1969; married to Judith Clute from 1964, partner of Elizabeth Hand since 1996. He began to publish work of genre interest with an sf-tinged poem "Carcajou Lament" in Triquarterly for Winter 1960 [ie Autumn 1959]; he began consistently publishing sf reviews in his "New Fiction" column for the Toronto Star (1966-1967), and later in ...