SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Saturday 1 April 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.
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Thomas, D M
(1935-2023) UK poet and author who made use of sf themes most explicitly in such early Poetry as "The Head-Rape" in New Worlds for March 1968 and the two-part "Computer 70: Dreams & Lovepoems" (March-April 1970 New Worlds), a sequence assembled with other poetry of interest in Logan Stone (coll 1970); or the later "S. F." (in The Umbral Anthology of Science Fiction Poetry, anth ...
Alchemy
US Small Press magazine that paid a sufficiently high wordage rate to be classified as professional, though it did not have a wide circulation. It was published by Edgewood Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, edited by Steve Pasechnick and saw only three undated issues, published in 2003, 2004 and 2006. Published in review-size format, 88 pages, and comparatively expensive at $7, beautifully designed by Bryan Cholfin but with no internal ...
Infinite Matrix, The
US professional cumulative Online Magazine which posted material daily but was archived monthly. It was published by Eileen Gunn and ran, after what could have been its only issue in August 2001, from November 2001 to January 2006, with three additional issues in April 2006, January 2007 and July 2008. Along with Sci Fiction and Strange Horizons, both of ...
Shapeshifters
The ability to change shape is an ancient trope of Fantasy, extensively discussed in The Encyclopedia of Fantasy. It is a traditional power of various Supernatural Creatures such as Werewolves (invariably) and traditional Vampires; this entry focuses on sf rationalizations of the theme. A defining quality of ...
Miller, Leo E
(1887-1952) US explorer and author, his nonfiction tending to focus on his travels in South America, and of the Hidden People sequence of Lost Race tales for boys, comprising The Hidden People: The Story of a Search for Incan Treasure (1920), In the Tiger's Lair (1921) and (less interestingly) The Jungle Pirates (1925). Miller's realistic handling of geography and the natural sciences makes more embarrassing his ...
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 ...