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Tuesday 18 August 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 17 August 2026
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Crowley, John
(1942-2026) US teacher and author who also worked in documentary films and television for some time beginning in 1966. His sf novels have had a considerable impact on the field, and his fantasies established him as a figure whose work courteously but deeply stretched the boundaries of genre literature. / His first novel, The Deep (1975), is set on a flat discworld (see Flat Earth) resting on a pillar that extends beyond measurement into the ...
Steamboy
Japanese animated film (2004). Bandai Visual, Studio 4 degrees C, Steamboy Committee. Directed by Katsuhiro Ōtomo. Written by Sadayuki Murai and Katsuhiro Ōtomo. Cast includes Kiyoshi Kodama, Manami Konishi, Katsuo Nakamura, Ann Suzuki and Masane Tsukayama. 126 minutes (also cut at 103 minutes). Colour. / Ponderous Steampunk caper in which a family of inventors trap super-heated, ...
Porter, David Dixon
(1813-1891) US naval officer, the second to be appointed Admiral, a prominent figure in the American Civil War, later superintendent of the Naval Academy at Annapolis; of several novels published late in his life, The Adventures of Harry Marline; Or, Notes from an American Midshipman's Lucky Bag (1885) is a Lost Race tale for boys, involving Monsters of the deep and other strange encounters. [JC]
Quaglia, Roberto
(1962- ) Italian author whose first works of genre interest were published in Romanian translation, beginning with Vagabondul interspatial (trans Cornel Nicolau from 1985 manuscript 1994; as Paradoxine: The Adventures of James Vagabond 2009); GOD Ltd (trans Peter de Ville from 1985 manuscript 1992 chap) is a Satire set in Western America about a deity who seems half ...
Leonardo da Vinci
(1452-1519) Florentine painter, sculptor, inventor and military engineer, celebrated since the Enlightenment as the epitome of Renaissance creative genius and frequently invoked as an sf Icon of these qualities. He had no surname as such, "Leonardo" being his given name, "di ser Piero" designating his natural father (he was illegitimate), and "da Vinci" indicating that he was born in the town of Vinci; he is, therefore, normally cited as Leonardo, or Leonardo da Vinci. ...
Robinson, Roger
(1943- ) UK computer programmer, bibliographer and publisher, active in UK Fandom for many years. The Writings of Henry Kenneth Bulmer (1983 chap; rev 1984 chap) is an exhaustive Bibliography of one of the most prolific sf writers, Kenneth Bulmer, and Who's Hugh?: An SF Reader's Guide to Pseudonyms (1987) is similarly exhaustive in its ...