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Friday 13 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.
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Harper, George W
(1927- ) US science author who specialized in astronomy, and author, contributing nonfiction pieces to the "Science Fact" department of Analog from May 1963; he began to publish fiction of genre interest with "A Twice-Toed Tale" in Analog for May 1979. His first sf novel, Gypsy Earth (1982), is a full-flung Space Opera in the manner of the pre-World War Two masters of that ...
Tweed, Thomas F
(1890-1940) UK soldier, publisher and author, in active service during World War One, political advisor to David Lloyd George (1863-1945) from 1927 until his death. This relationship, and his affair with Lloyd George's then mistress (and eventual wife) Frances Stevenson (1888-1972) both figure, transposed to America, in his first Scientific Romance, the Near-Future ...
Schutz, J W
(1912-1984) US author, mostly of short stories, and diplomat who graduated in science and later from the US Counter-Insurgency School. He was in his fifties when – to give himself something to do while stationed in West Africa – he began writing sf, with "Maiden Voyage" in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction for March 1965. His two Space Operas for Robert Hale Limited are ...
McCutcheon, George Barr
(1866-1928) US author whose Graustark sequence of tales set in a Balkan Ruritania – beginning with Graustark: The Story of a Love Behind a Throne (1901) and ending with The Inn of the Hawk and Raven: A Tale of Old Graustark (1927) – erects an edifice of nostalgia and modestly defiant enclosedness almost as powerful as that created in the actual Ruritanian novels of Anthony Hope. But ...
Planetes
Japanese animated tv series (2003-2004). Sunrise. Directed by Gorō Taniguchi. Written by Ichirō Ōkouchi and Makoto Yukimura, based on the Manga by Makoto Yukimura. Voice cast includes Ai Orikasa, Kazunari Tanaka, Unshô Ishizuka and Satsuki Yukino. 26 25-minute episodes. Colour. / In 2075 first-world corporations dominate space and the exploitation of its resources. As their ...
Clute, John
(1940- ) Canadian critic, editor and author, in the UK from 1969; married to Judith Clute from 1964, partner of Elizabeth Hand since 1996. He began to publish work of genre interest with an sf-tinged poem "Carcajou Lament" in Triquarterly for Winter 1960 [ie Autumn 1959]; he began consistently publishing sf reviews in his "New Fiction" column for the Toronto Star (1966-1967), and later in ...