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Saturday 12 July 2025
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 7 July 2025
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Reiffel, Leonard
(1927-2017) US physicist, broadcaster, noted for his competent and accessible radio programme The World Tomorrow which began in 1964, Deputy Director of the Apollo Moon project for NASA 1965-1969, and author; in his Near Future Technothriller, The Contaminant (1978), a plot is brewed to destroy the USSR with a virus that causes cancer (see Pandemic). [JC]
Morton, Frank
(1869-1923) UK-born author, in Australia for much of his life. The title story of The Angel of the Earthquake (coll 1909 chap), a Near Future tale in which, from the perspective of a narrator 1960, describes a great 1910 Disaster, in the form of a great earthquake, which destroys Wellington, New Zealand. In its wake, social upheaval generates a hopeful Utopia based on loving-kindness; the ...
Helders, Major von
Pseudonym of German soldier and author Robert Knauss (1892-1955), who served in both World War One and World War Two, rising to the rank of Lieutenant-General, and whose nonfiction works focused on aviation matters. Of sf interest is Luftkrieg 1936: Die Zertrümmerun von Paris (1932; trans Claud W Sykes as The War in the Air, 1936 1932; German original rev vt ...
Doc Savage
Hero of many pulp-action sf novels first published – usually as by Kenneth Robeson (a House Name most often used by Lester Dent, but see the Robeson entry for other users of this name) – in Doc Savage magazine. A master Scientist, almost superhuman in intelligence and strength, Doc Savage was actually Clark ...
Rewolinski, Leah
(1954- ) US author of the Star Wreck series of Parodies set in the Star Trek universe, structured so that sets of characters from different sub-series share (in a sense) the same Spaceship. Much of the humour is extremely broad, beginning with spoof alterations of individual names – Captain James T Smirk and Captain Jean-Lucy Ricardo being typical – and proceeding ...
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 ...