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Sunday 20 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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Williams, Tess
(1954-2025) UK-born teacher, editor and author, in Australia for many years, there receiving a degree in literature from Curtin University and an MA in creative writing from the University of Western Australia. She began publishing work of genre interest with "The Padwan Affair" in She's Fantastical (anth 1995) edited by Judith Raphael Buckrich and Lucy Sussex. Of sf interest are two novels: Map of Power (1996), set mostly in a ...
Pfeil, Donald J
(1937-1989) US author whose Voyage to a Forgotten Sun (1975), Through the Reality Warp (1976) and Look Back to Earth (1977) as Don Pfeil were Young Adult deliberately (and enjoyably) outmoded Space-Opera idiom. Under the House Name William Arrow he wrote Return to the Planet of the Apes 2: Escape from Terror Lagoon ...
Greenwood, Gary
(? - ) UK small-press author in whose first novel The Dreaming Pool (1998) a South Wales underachiever is threatened by ghosts, a secret society and an H P Lovecraft-style Thing; an early hint at extra-terrestrial incomers (see Aliens) leaves the true nature of events around the titular pool suitably unresolved. Greenwood's distinctive mix of sf, ...
Algol – Tragedy of Power
German silent film (1920); original title Algol. Tragödie der Macht; vt Power. Deutsche Lichtbild-Gesellschaft. Directed by Hans Werckmeister. Written by Hans Brennert and Fridel Köhne. Cast includes John Gottowt, Käthe Haack, Ernst Hofmann, Emil Jannings, Erna Morena, Hanna Ralph, Hans Adalbert Schlettow and Gertrude Welcker. 112 minutes. Black and white. / A prologue informs us that "circling high and infinitely far shines ...
Smith, Wayland
Pseudonym used for his one Scientific Romance by UK engineer and author Victor Bayley (1880-1972); he served in the Royal Engineers during World War One; his career at a high level in the Indian railway system was reflected in much of his adventure fiction, some of which verged on fantasy, and which he signed with his real name. Wayland Smith was a legendary blacksmith in German and Norse mythology; in ...
Clute, John
(1940- ) Canadian critic, editor and author, in the UK from 1969; married to Judith Clute from 1964, partner of Elizabeth Hand since 1996. He began to publish work of genre interest with an sf-tinged poem "Carcajou Lament" in Triquarterly for Winter 1960 [ie Autumn 1959]; he began consistently publishing sf reviews in his "New Fiction" column for the Toronto Star (1966-1967), and later in ...