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Sunday 13 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.
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Hurd, Douglas
(1930- ) UK Conservative politician and author, in the former capacity serving his government between 1984 and 1995 at Cabinet level. His sf novels are, perhaps understandably, Near-Future thrillers in which the UK must survive threats from within and without (see Politics). Send Him Victorious (1968) with Andrew Osmond (1938-1999) is the first of the Harvey sequence tracing the ...
Dark Conspiracy
Role Playing Game (1991). Game Developers' Workshop (GDW). Designed by Lester Smith. / The world of Dark Conspiracy is one of disintegration, in which both society and reality have begun to collapse. It is set in a twenty-first century where, as in Dark Future (1988), economic failure and ecological breakdown have led to political fragmentation; the superpowers of the previous century have broken up ...
Follett, James
(1939-2021) UK author of fiction and technical material, not to be confused with his cousin, Ken Follett. Some of his early sf work was created for BBC TV and BBC Radio, including The Light of a Thousand Suns (1974) and most famously the Earthsearch sequence, for which he wrote both the radio version – two seasons of ten episodes each, Earthsearch: A Ten-Part Adventure Serial in Time and Space ...
Gillmore, Parker
(1835-1900) UK soldier, hunter and author, mostly of travel books published 1869-1896, often as by Ubique. His sf novel, The Amphibion's Voyage (1885), is a tale shaped suspiciously like a travelogue, but manages to evoke some interest for the eponymous amphibious vehicle, which carries its passengers through Africa into encounters with a sea Monster or two. [JC]
Amazing Spider-Man, The
1. US tv series (1977-1979). Charles Fries Productions for CBS-TV. Character created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko for Marvel Comics, debuting in Amazing Fantasy #15 (August 1962) and appearing in his own title The Amazing Spider-Man from March 1963. Produced by Robert Jones, Lionel E Siegel, Edward Montagne. Directors included Cliff Bole, Michael Caffey, Don MacDougall. ...
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 ...