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Thursday 19 February 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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Mason, Anita
(1942-2020) UK author whose second novel, The Illusionist (1983), is a literary fantasy centred on the magician/magus Simon Magus. Her sf novel, The War against Chaos (1988), also intensely literary in demeanour (see Mainstream Writers of SF), posits a Near-Future City in an unnamed (but very UK-like) Dystopia dominated by ...
Planet Comics
US Comic (1940-1953). Fiction House Magazines. 73 issues. Artists include Murphy Anderson, George Appel, Enrico Bagnoli, Bill Benulis, Alex Blum, Joe Doolin, Lee Elias, Fran Hopper, Henry Kiefer, Chester Martin, Ruben Moreira, Maurice Whitman and Dan Zolnerowich. Script authors include Olaf Bjorn, Ross Gallun, Thorncliffe Herrick and Douglas McKee. Initially 7 or 8 comic strips per issue, gradually reducing to 4 or 5, plus a two page text story, short strips and ...
Rinzler, J W
(1962-2021) US author and film executive, with Lucasfilm 2001-2016, where he became an executive editor of Lucasbooks; best known for nonfiction books on Cinema and in particular the Star Wars franchise, beginning with Star Wars: The Making of Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005) [for further Star Wars volumes see Checklist below]. Other film franchises are discussed in such titles as ...
Rutley, C Bernard
(1888-1956) UK author, mostly of Children's SF; several of his Lost Race tales, some clearly influenced by H Rider Haggard, are of interest. They include the Honor Lang sequence, beginning with The Ring of Nenuphar (1943), which climaxes in China. He also published several singletons, including The Golden Mirage (1938), which focuses on treasure; ...
Turner, E S
(1909-2006) UK journalist and nonfiction author who for more than fifty years contributed articles – most of them quirkily factual – to Punch magazine. His first book Boys Will Be Boys: The Story of Sweeney Todd, Deadwood Dick, Sexton Blake, Billy Bunter, Dick Barton, et al (1948; exp rev 1957; exp rev 1975) is a useful survey of Boys' Papers. Later editions briefly covered the 1950s UK horror- ...
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 ...