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Sunday 12 April 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 6 April 2026
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Cole, Cyrus
(? -? ) US author. In his eccentrically interesting The Auroraphone: A Romance (1890), messages from a sentient being on Saturn are received on the eponymous instrument, an Invention designed to pick up "sound-signs" from almost anywhere; life on Saturn is Utopian in many ways, although a Robot revolt flares up – one of the first of many in sf, the most ...
Wilson, Robert Anton
(1932-2007) US author who remains best known for the first Illuminatus! sequence – The Eye in the Pyramid (1975), The Golden Apple (1975) and Leviathan (1975), assembled as The Illuminatus Trilogy (omni 1984) – all written with Robert J Shea. Shea did not collaborate with Wilson on Cosmic Trigger: The Final Secret of the Illuminati (1977), The Illuminati Papers ...
Barr, Ken
(1933-2016) Working name of American artist Kenneth Barr, born in Scotland, who used the name Kenneth Barr for his early work in Britain. After military service he relocated to London to launch a career as a commercial artist and briefly worked for the British magazine Nebula Science Fiction, contributing three undistinguished covers and numerous interior illustrations; he also drew for a British Comic book, D C Thomson's ...
Quake
Videogame (1996). id Software (id). Designed by John Carmack, American McGee, Sandy Peterson, John Romero, Tim Willits. Platforms: DOS, Lin (1996); rev vt VQuake (1996); rev vt QuakeWorld (1996); Mac, Saturn, Mainframe (1997); rev vt GLQuake (1997); rev vt WinQuake (1997); Amiga, N64 (1998); PPC (2002); rev vt Quake Mobile WinPhone ...
Bonner, Richard
(? -? ) US author of whom nothing is known beyond the fact that his name apparently refers to a real author (not always the case when American juvenile series are concerned). Although his Boy Inventors sequence is neither the first nor the most important of its category, his overall title has been used to describe various series of this sort (see Airship Boys; Radio Boys) – that is, ...
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 ...