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Sunday 4 October 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 28 September 2026
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May, Peter
(1951-2026) Scottish journalist, screenwriter and author, active from around 1970; resident in France from around 2000. During the first twenty-five years of his career as a screenwriter, he was involved in something like 1,000 television productions, all seemingly nonfantastic. He began to publish fiction with The Reporter (1978), which he serialized for the BBC; most of his later novels were crime thrillers, including the China Thrillers beginning with ...
Slobodkin, Louis
(1903-1975) US illustrator and author who is perhaps best known for his many picture books (none are listed here). Of sf interest is the Space Ship series beginning with The Space Ship Under the Apple Tree (1952), designed for younger readers within what would now be thought of as the Young Adult market. Young Eddie, a pleasant-tempered boy scout, meets a young Alien who disguises his ...
Temporal Adventuress
A figure of late twentieth-century Fantastika, where she stands out against the male-dominated storylines that dominated adventure fiction in general, and tales of the fantastic in particular; more recently, women adventurers tend to appear without arousing special attention. The roots of the Adventuress can be traced back to the nineteenth century, where precursors can be detected in characters like H Rider Haggard's ...
Aldridge, Ray
Working name of US author Raymon Huebert Aldridge (1948- ), who began publishing work of sf interest with "The Flesh Tinker and the Loneliest Man" in Amazing for July 1987. His most typical work – in a style evocative of Cordwainer Smith and Jack Vance – may be contained in the PanGalactic Universe sequence, beginning with "The Touch of the Hook" (April 1988 ...
Pink Floyd
Prodigiously successful and influential UK supergroup, founded in the mid 1960s by bassist Roger Waters (1943- ), drummer Nick Mason (1944- ), keyboard player Rick Wright (1943-2008) and eccentric singer-guitarist Syd Barrett (1946-2006). This first incarnation of the band (identified by fans as "The Syd Barrett years") was characterized by a series of notable psychedelic and often drug-influenced live performances, mostly jazz-influenced rock ...
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 ...