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Monday 16 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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Tick, The
US animated tv series (1994-1996). Sunbow Productions, Graz Entertainment, Fox Children's Productions. Based on the Comic book character created by Ben Edlund. Directors include John Kafka, Russel Mooney, Sue Peters, Hank Tucker and Art Vitello. Writers include Ben Edlund and Richard Liebmann-Smith. Voice cast includes Cam Clarke, Townsend Coleman, Micky Dolenz, Ron Feinberg, Jess Harnell, Tony Jay, Kay Lenz, John Mariano and Rob Paulsen. 36 20-minute ...
Moon [film]
Film (2009). Liberty Films UK in association with Xingu Films and Limelight/Lunar Industries. Directed by Duncan Jones. Written by Nathan Parker; story by Jones. Cast includes Dominique McElligott, Sam Rockwell, Kaya Scodelario and Kevin Spacey (voice). 97 minutes. Colour. / In the Near Future, a new Power Source – fusion fuelled by lunar helium-3 – has solved Earth's ...
Devolution
Sf is usually an optimistic genre, and stories of Evolution on the whole envisage humanity as slowly progressing to higher states. However, a persistent pessimistic note in Genre SF generally, and to a degree in mainstream sf too, has been to imagine the opposite, the devolution or degeneration of mankind. The note was sounded most famously in H G Wells's The Time Machine (1895), in which ...
Phelps, William Lyon
(1865-1943) US academic, man-of-letters and author, of some sf interest for A Dash to the Pole (1909 chap), a spoof narrative depicting a Near Future expedition to the North Pole. [JC]
Delacorte, Peter
(1943- ) US author whose sf novel, Time on My Hands (1997), carries its protagonist back to 1938 Hollywood (see California; Time Travel) with the mission to do anything in his power that will prevent Ronald Reagan from eventually becoming President of the United States; unfortunately for his mission (though fortunately for Reagan, who turns out to be highly likeable), the protagonist's journeys ...
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 ...