SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Friday 18 April 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 14 April 2025
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Mathematics
The imaginations of pure mathematicians have provided sf writers with important motifs. For example, the notions taken from geometry and topology of a fourth and other Dimensions (which see for a listing of relevant sf stories) have the essential qualities of strangeness and mystery, making them an enjoyable struggle for the untrained intuition to accept. A surprising number of sf writers have been mathematicians, or at least have trained in mathematics; among ...
Barbusse, Henri
(1873-1935) French author, best known for his strongly realistic fiction, especially that concerning World War One. Les enchaînements (1925 2vols; trans Stephen Haden Guest as Chains 1925 2vols) attempts – like many novels from the first third of the century – to present a panoramic vision of mankind's prehistory and history, in this case through the transcendental experiences of a single protagonist who is struck ...
OMPA
Known usually by its acronym, the Offtrails Magazine Publishers Association (1954-1978 or 1979) was an APA formed in the UK by Kenneth Bulmer and A Vincent Clarke, whose founder members included Chuck Harris. OMPA was modelled on FAPA, and was likewise created to facilitate distribution of Fanzines published by and for ...
Ings, Simon
(1965- ) UK author who began publishing sf with "Blessed Fields" in Other Edens III (anth 1989) edited by Christopher Evans and Robert P Holdstock; and who has become moderately prolific as an author of short stories. His first novel, Hot Head (1992), heatedly and congestedly, and with moments of Cyberpunk-ish brilliance, presents the ...
Twelve Monkeys
Film (1995). Polygram Filmed Entertainment and Universal Pictures present an Atlas Entertainment production. Directed by Terry Gilliam. Written by David & Janet Peoples, inspired by La Jetée (1963) by Chris Marker. Cast includes David Morse, Brad Pitt, Christopher Plummer, John Seda, Madeleine Stowe and Bruce Willis. 129 minutes. Colour. / A time traveller sent ...
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 ...