SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Thursday 7 May 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 4 May 2026
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Conway, Gerard F
(1952-2026) US author informally known as Gerry Conway who began his career in Comics, writing some non-fantastic scripts for Marvel Comics, and editing the short-lived 1973 weird fiction magazine The Haunt of Horror and writing for the 1973-1975 anthology Comic Worlds Unknown. He also worked extensively for ...
Ex Machina [film]
Film (2015). DNA Films, Film4. Directed and written by Alex Garland. Cast includes Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac, Corey Johnson, Sonoya Mizuno, Alicia Vikander. 108 minutes. Colour. / Young Computer programmer Caleb (Gleeson) works for Bluebook, the world's leading search engine firm; the name derives at least in part from The Blue & Brown Books (1958) by Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951), where the ...
BBC Radiophonic Workshop, The
Founded in 1958, this department of the BBC was tasked with providing both sound effects and original music for BBC radio and television programming. Desmond Briscoe (1925-2006) and Daphne Oram (1925-2003), who had previously composed original electronic music for radio works by Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) and Giles Cooper, were the founding recruits. They soon established the Workshop's reputation for innovative, striking music and all manner of sound effects. ...
Spillane, Mickey
(1918-2006) Working name of US author Frank Morrison Spillane, whose career began with early-1940s work in Comics including Blue Bolt (which see); he wrote scripts for Superhero characters including Batman and Sub-Mariner, and at least one text sf story for the comics, "The Man in the Moon" in All-Winners Comics #5 (which see) for June ...
McGhan, Barry
(1939- ) US fan and bibliographer who began to publish work of genre interest with "Andre Norton: Why Has She Been Neglected?" in Riverside Quarterly for January 1970. He is perhaps of greatest importance for the compilation Science Fiction and Fantasy Pseudonyms (1971 chap; var revs to 1979) [see Checklist below], a useful guide to Pseudonyms. ...
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 ...