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Sunday 14 June 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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Duffy, Maureen
(1933-2026) UK author, active from around 1950, several of whose books focused on London, including Capital (1975), a complex set of era-switching meditations – including a Neanderthal man's thoughts about the future – on the deep mythos of the city. The novel influenced Michael Moorcock's Mother London (1988) (as the author acknowledged clearly), and similar later works by Iain ...
Turner, Ron
(1922-1998) UK illustrator and Comics artist who took early inspiration from the gaudy sf covers of Amazing Stories and Astounding Science-Fiction. He was illustrating for the Boys' Paper Modern Wonder as early as 1940, and went on to produce many covers for 1950-1954 sf titles by John Russell Fearn writing as Vargo Statten, Volsted ...
Bijo to Ekitai-ningen
Film (1958; vt The H-Man; vt Beautiful Women and the Hydrogen Man). Toho. Director Ishirō Honda. Written by Takeshi Kimura, based on a story by Hideo Kaijo. Cast includes Akihiko Hirata, Kenji Sahara, Koreya Senda and Yumi Shirakawa. 87 minutes, cut to 79 minutes. Colour. / This Japanese film is, coincidentally, similar to The Blob (also 1958) but is more ingenious and sinister. Fishermen examining a drifting freighter ...
Komatsuzaki Shigeru
(1915-2001) Japanese illustrator (see Illustration) and author, whose lurid images dominated sf publishing in Japan in the 1950s, before resurgent Cinema and the new media of Television and Manga changed the shape of the genre. / His first published work comprised illustrations for the serial "Shirogitsune Kidan" ["Mystery of the White Fox"] (1938 ...
Fly II, The
Film (1989). Brooksfilms/Twentieth Century Fox. Directed by Chris Walas. Written by Mick Garris, Jim Wheat, Ken Wheat, Frank Darabont, based on a story by Garris. Cast includes Lee Richardson, Eric Stoltz and Daphne Zuniga. 104 minutes. Colour. / This is a genuine sequel to the 1986 remake of The Fly, not just a lame excuse for more horrific "fly" effects. Chris Walas, the skilled technician who created those effects for the earlier film, here made ...
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 ...