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Wednesday 16 July 2025
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 16 July 2025
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Williams, Tess
(1954-2025) UK-born teacher, editor and author, in Australia for many years, there receiving a degree in literature from Curtin University and an MA in creative writing from the University of Western Australia. She began publishing work of genre interest with "The Padwan Affair" in She's Fantastical (anth 1995) edited by Judith Raphael Buckrich and Lucy Sussex. Of sf interest are two novels: Map of Power (1996), set mostly in a ...
Kievnauchfilm
Ukrainian film studio founded in 1943 which initially produced science documentaries (the name is a contraction of Kiev Science Films), but in 1959 Irina Gurvich, Ippolit Lazarchuk and Nina Vasilenko opened an animation workshop that, until its closure in 1998, made over 300 films, mainly shorts, usually for television. Ukrainian animation had began in 1927 with Vyacheslav Levandovskiy's The Chaff Goby (original title Solomennyi Biychok), but was ...
Richardson, Maurice
(1907-1978) UK journalist and author whose principal genre contribution is a collection of Club Stories, The Exploits of Engelbrecht: Abstracted from the Chronicles of the Surrealist Sportsman's Club (stories June 1946-April 1950 Lilliput; coll of linked stories 1950; exp 2000). This, with enjoyable absurdist Humour, involves Engelbrecht – a dwarf "Surrealist Boxer" – in such unlikely ...
Newman, Richard Louis
(1956- ) US author of a Space Opera, Siege of Orbitor (1980), in which the eponymous Spaceship, en route to Jupiter, is assaulted from within by a Mutant planning to take over command; and a horror tale, On Wings of Evil (1988). [JC]
Thomson, William
(1746-1817) Scottish author, in England from 1778, who also wrote as by Sergeant Donald Macleod, Thomas Newte and Andrew Swinton. He is of Proto SF interest for two connected titles [for full titles see Checklist below]: The Man in the Moon (1783 2vols), a Satire, clearly influenced by the work of Jonathan Swift, in which an earthling is taken to the Moon by its ...
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 ...