SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Wednesday 8 February 2023
Welcome to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Fourth Edition. Some sample entries appear below. Click here for the Introduction; here for the masthead; here for 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 8 February 2023
Sponsor of the day: Stuart Hopen
Cramps, The
A band combining rock'n'roll and punk, a sound they described as rockabilly voodoo, who inspired many subsequent bands (particularly those in the Psychobilly genre). Formed in 1976 by vocalist Lux Interior (1946-2009), real name Erick Lee Purkhiser, and guitarist Poison Ivy (1953- ), real name Kristy Marlana Wallace; this pair was the main creative force and ever-present until they disbanded in 2009, following Interior's death. Other key members included guitarist ...
Orb, The
UK electronic music act, founded by Alex Paterson (1959- ) and Jimmy Cauty (1956- ) and at present (after various personnel changes) comprising Paterson and Swizz-born Thomas Fehlmann (1958- ). The Orb's atmospheric, often playfully evocative, ambient music takes much of its inspiration from science fiction. Their first, and best, album was The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld (1991), which maps out its ...
Holberg, Ludvig
(1684-1754) Danish playwright, essayist and historian. Born in Bergen, Norway, Holberg studied at Copenhagen and settled permanently in Denmark, where he was appointed professor at Copenhagen University, first of philosophy, later of metaphysics and of Latin rhetoric, and finally of history in 1730. A prolific author, he published several voluminous poems, including Peder Paars (1719; trans Bergliot Stromsoe 1962), which describes the ...
Guthrie, Kenneth Sylvan
(1871-1940) Scottish-born Episcopalian priest, academic, teacher, translator and author, in US from 1913. His sf novel, A Romance of Two Centuries: A Tale of the Year 2025 (1919), takes its Sleeper Awakes protagonist from World War One, where he has been infected with sleeping sickness, to the year 2025, where he is partially cured of his illness, finds himself the heir to a huge but disputed fortune, and ...
Editorial Practices: Chinese and Japanese Names
China / Chinese names are given in the traditional order, with surname first; we do not use commas to separate surnames from "first" names in Chinese entry titles because the surname naturally occurs at the front. Romanization is standard Pinyin, without tone marks, which this encyclopedia employs not only for figures from the People's Republic of China, but also from Taiwan, Singapore and the Chinese diaspora. Hence, the likes of ...
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 ...