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Sunday 9 August 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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Southall, Ivan
(1921-2008) Australian soldier and author, of sf interest for the Simon Black Young Adult sequence, beginning with his first published book, Meet Simon Black (1950; cut 1957), in which Squadron Leader Black leaves the service after World War Two and creates a rocket-powered supersonic VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Land) aircraft (see Inventions); Black improves this vehicle ...
Swift, Jonathan
(1667-1745) Irish satirist, cleric, poet and author, dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, from 1713, who began publishing with the relatively innocuous Ode: to the King on his Irish Expedition (1691 chap), but who soon composed A Tale of a Tub [for subtitle see Checklist] (1704) anonymous, written almost a decade before it was published. Along with the title squib, the book incorporated a second Satire, usually called today "The Battle ...
Alexander, Thea Plym
(1936- ) US author of 2150: "The Macro Love Story" (1971 as by Don and Thea Plym; exp vt 2150 A.D. as by Thea Alexander 1976), in which a pacific vegetarian Utopia is promulgated on the lines also laid down in the original authors' A Macro Philosophy for the Aquarian Age (1971); she was listed as solo author of the similar ...
Truth Quotient, The
Performance (2013; vt This Rough Magic). Written by Richard Manly; directed by Eric Parness; produced by Resonance Ensemble; featuring Jarel Davidow, Angelina Fiordellisi, Meredith Howard, Brian Tom O'Connor, Shaun Bennet Wilson and Maxwell Zener. Samuel Beckett Theatre, New York City, 9 January 2013. / In Richard Manly's The Truth Quotient, what is real and what is true come to the fore in the story of billionaire entrepreneur David (Davidow). David has purchased ...
Captain Midnight
1. Serial Film (1942). Columbia Pictures. Directed by James W Horne. Written by Basil Dickey, Wyndham Gittens, George Plympton and Jack Stanley, based on the radio serial Captain Midnight (1938-1949) created and written by Wilfred G Moore and Robert M Burtt. 15 episodes; total running time 270 minutes. Cast includes James Craven, Sam Edwards, Knox Manning (narrator), Dave O'Brien and Luana Walters. Black and white. / Highly ...
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 ...