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Wednesday 15 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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Rankin, Robert
(1949- ) UK author who began writing his highly idiosyncratic sf novels with the Brentford sequence beginning with The Antipope (1981), The Brentford Triangle (1983) and East of Ealing (1984), these three assembled as The Brentford Trilogy (omni 1988); the final volume in the sequence, Retromancer (2009), is a spoof Hitler Wins ...
Osbourne, Lloyd
(1868-1947) US author, step-son of Robert Louis Stevenson, with whom he collaborated on three novels including the popular nonfantastic black comedy The Wrong Box (1889) and The Ebb-Tide: A Trio & Quartette (November 1893-February 1894 To-Day; 1894), primarily by his father-in-law [whom see for details]. Some of the tales assembled in The Queen Versus Billy and Other Stories (coll 1900) and ...
Claretie, Jules
(1840-1913) French theatre director, drama critic and author, prolific as novelist and playwright; of sf interest is L'Obsession (Moi et l'Autre) (1908; trans Brian Stableford as Obsession 2013), whose protagonist's Identity is split in two, the divided personalities distinct along lines most vividly demarcated in Robert Louis Stevenson's ...
Star Wars
Film (1977; vt Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, 1978 or [officially] 1981). Twentieth Century Fox. Directed by George Lucas. Written by Lucas. Cast includes Peter Cushing, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, Alec Guinness and Mark Hamill. 121 minutes, re-released Special Edition 125 minutes (1997). Colour. / One of the most financially successful sf films to date, Star Wars is an entertaining pastiche that draws ...
Huff, Tanya
(1957- ) Canadian author whose wife Fiona Patton (1962- ) writes fantasy exclusively. She began publishing work of genre interest with "What Little Girls are Made Of" for Magic in Ithkar 3 (anth 1986) edited by Robert Adams and Andre Norton. Most of her subsequent work has also been fantasy, beginning with the Novels of Crystal sequence comprising ...
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 ...