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Thursday 12 March 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 9 March 2026
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Dreamcatcher
Film (2003). Castle Rock Entertainment presents a Kasdan Pictures production in association with Village Roadshow Pictures and NPV Entertainment. Directed by Lawrence Kasdan. Written by William Goldman and Lawrence Kasdan, based on the novel Dreamcatcher (2001) by Stephen King. Cast includes Giacomo Baessato, Rosemary Dunsmore, Morgan Freeman, Mikey Holekamp, Thomas Jane, Eric Keenleyside, Jason Lee, ...
Pardio
Pseudonym of UK author John Nott Pyke-Nott (1841-1923), author of a book-length poem, The White Africans (1879 chap; exp rev 1883), which narrates the discovery of an ancient Lost Race of whites in the mountains of Africa; it is an early example of the form. [JC]
Outlaws
US tv series (1986-1987). CBS. Cast includes Christine Belford, Patrick Houser, William Lucking, Charles Napier, Richard Roundtree and Rod Taylor. 120-minute pilot plus eleven 60-minute episodes. Colour. / As Sheriff Jonathan Grail (Taylor) chases the four fleeing outlaws of the Pike Gang after a robbery in 1899, all five of them ride into a strange electrical storm, are struck by a lightning bolt, and by this traditional route undergo a Timeslip to ...
Payne, Paul L
(1921-1992) US editor and author, who edited Planet Stories between 1946 and 1950, and who published some Space Operas, notably The Cructars Are Coming (Summer 1952 Two Complete Science-Adventure Books; 2008 ebook), in which Martians (see Mars) are wrongly accused of causing mass deaths on Earth. [JC]
Wright, Lawrence
(1947- ) US journalist, screenwriter and author, active from the 1970s; much of his nonfiction work comprises analyses of world politics over the past several decades, a focus reflected in his filmscript for The Siege (1998) directed by Edward Zwick, whose story – martial law is declared in New York after a terrorist attack – hovers at the edge of the fantastic. ...
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 ...