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Wednesday 11 February 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 9 February 2026
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Carver, Jeffrey A
(1949-2026) US author who began publishing sf with "... Of No Return" in Fiction Magazine for 1974. His first novel, Seas of Ernathe (1976), which serves as an introduction to the loose Star Rigger sequence of Space Operas, showed early signs of a love of plot and thematic complexity which would take him some time, and several novels, to control. The continuation, Star Rigger's Way (1978), for instance, combines quest ...
Spooks!
Short US film (1953). Columbia Pictures. Directed by Jules White. Written by Felix Adler. Cast includes Steve Calvert, Larry Fine, Moe Howard, Shemp Howard, Tom Kennedy, Norma Randall and Philip Van Zandt. 16 minutes. Black and white. / The Three Stooges (at the time, Fine, Moe Howard, and Shemp Howard) are private detectives (see Crime and Punishment) hired to find a missing woman. They disguise themselves as pie salesmen and go from door to ...
Amazing Digital Circus, The
Australian/US animated webseries (2023-current). Glitch. Created, directed and written by Gooseworx (Cooper Smith Goodwin). Voice cast includes Sean Chiplock, Lizzie Freeman, Gooseworx, Jack Hawkins, Amanda Hufford, Michael Kovach, Marissa Lenti, Ashley Nichols and Alex Rochon. Two 25-minute episodes. Colour. / Premiering on YouTube in October 2023, the The Amazing Digital Circus pilot had over 317 million views (and 6 million likes) in the first ...
Machover, Tod
(1953- ) US avant-garde composer. Particularly fascinated by the crossovers between technology and music, Machover has not only composed science-fictional opera and orchestral pieces, he has also innovated the instruments of the traditional orchestral, producing an electronic stringed instruments with feedback hardware he calls a "hyperviolin" and "hypercello" (played with a "hyperbow") as well as a "hyperpiano". Valis: An opera in two parts (1987) is based ...
Roussel, Raymond
(1877-1933) French author whose works take their experimental origins from (and contribute to) French Modernism before World War One and have been (against his own sense of his position) associated with 1920s Surrealism; he may more interestingly be thought of as a bridge between fin de siècle experimentalism and post-World War Two phenomena like Oulipo and the nouveau roman (see Alan ...
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 ...