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Friday 4 September 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 31 August 2026
Sponsor of the day: David Cowhig
Murray, Will
Working name of US author William Patrick Murray (1953-2026), who showed an interest throughout his career in Superheroes of the Pulp tradition (on which he was a known authority) such as Doc Savage, about which figure he wrote the nonfiction Secrets of Doc Savage (1981 chap). In this context he had been literary agent for Lester Dent's estate since 1979. ...
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
Film (1989). Interscope Communications/Soisson-Murphey/De Laurentiis. Director Stephen Herek. Written by Chris Matheson, Ed Solomon. Cast includes Robert V Barron, Terry Camilleri, George Carlin, Al Leong, Keanu Reeves, Jane Wiedlin and Alex Winter. 89 minutes. Colour. / Because the tranquillity of future life depends on the cultural changes brought about by a late-twentieth-century rock band called Wyld Stallyns, an emissary from the future named Rufus (Carlin) undergoes ...
FTL
Initialism, often employed in sf Terminology, for Faster Than Light – as for example in FTL Spaceship. Fritz Leiber's use of the term in "The Enchanted Forest" (October 1950 Astounding) may be the first printed appearance. [DRL] see also: Sublight. /
Williams, Francis T Perry
(? - ) US actor (active during the 1980s) and author whose sf novel, Pollen and the Ring of Harmony (2008; rev 2009), describes the arrival on Earth of an Alien who attempts to change the minds of Homo sapiens and cure them of the delusion that Climate Change is not destroying their habitat. An Asteroid is also due to impact the ...
Lawrence, Jim
Working name of US teacher and author James Duncan Lawrence (1918-1994), active from 1941 until the 1980s; he was one of the main authors in the Second Series of Tom Swift books (see Children's SF), comprising the Tom Swift Jr sequence as by Victor Appleton II (see Victor Appleton); Lawrence's contributions begin with #5: Tom Swift and His Atomic Earth Blaster (1954) and end with #30: ...
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 ...