SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Wednesday 11 March 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 March 2026
Sponsor of the day: The Telluride Institute
Williams, Islwyn
(1915-1988) Welsh author who produced two sf novels remembered longer in Italy than in the UK. Dangerous Waters (1952) showed British World War Two heroes defending the realm against a new enemy from Under the Sea off Pembrokeshire, and was one of the better 1950s green-skinned-invader yarns (admittedly, the competition included Kathleen Lindsay's sf as by Nigel Mackenzie). ...
Fantastic Adventures
US Pulp magazine published by Ziff-Davis as a companion to Amazing Stories; 128 issues May 1939 to March 1953. Fantastic Adventures began as a bimonthly, large-size pulp, but maintained a monthly schedule from January 1940 for most of its existence, shrinking to standard pulp size in June 1940. To December 1949 it was edited nominally by Raymond A Palmer, although ...
Swan, Thor
(1903-1978) US author in whose Near Future Satire Furfooze: A Tale Fantastique (1939) the body of an advanced creature from the Ice Age is brought back to life (see Apes as Human). [JC]
Johnson, Alaya Dawn
(1982- ) US author who began to publish work of genre interest with "Shard of Glass" in Strange Horizons for February 2005, and most of whose work has been Fantasy: including the Spirit Binders sequence beginning with Racing the Dark (2007), which is set in Polynesia before the whites came, and featuring characters in control of the spirit world; and the Zephyr Hollis sequence ...
M.D. Geist
Japanese Original Video Animation (OVA) (1986; 1996; vt M.D. Geist I: Most Dangerous Soldier). Original title Sokihei M.D. Geist. Studio Wave, Zero G-Room. Directed by Hayato Ikeda (in name only) and Koichi Ohata. Written by Riku Sanjo. Voice cast includes Unshō Ishizuka, Kazuhiro Nakata, Akio Nojima, Kaneto Shiozawa, and Noriaki Wakamoto. 40 minutes in 1986; 45 minutes in 1996. Colour. / The colony planet Jerra's civilization has ...
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 ...