SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Sunday 15 June 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 9 June 2025
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Longyear, Barry B
(1942-2025) US author and editor who ran a printing company with his wife before beginning to write in 1977, beginning to publish work of genre interest with "The Tryouts" in Asimov's for November/December 1978. Before his 1981 hospitalization for alcoholism and addiction to prescription drugs – an experience which formed the basis of his non-sf novel Saint Mary Blue (1988) – he had already published prolifically, sometimes as by Frederick ...
Maxon, J G
(? - ) US author of two unremarkable Technothrillers, Progeny (1989) and Lethal Delivery (1991). [JC]
Tractor Beam
Term coined by E E Smith in Spacehounds of IPC (July-September 1931 Amazing; 1947) for the Force-Field equivalent of a rope and grappling iron, used to seize and immobilize or haul in objects encountered in space – typically, mineral ores and Spaceships which may be hostile, damaged or simply docking. The tractor beam has been widely adopted by sf ...
Infinity Train
US animated tv series (2016; 2019-2021). Cartoon Network. Created by Owen Dennis. Executive producer Owen Dennis. Supervising director Madeline Queripel. Writers include Owen Dennis, Alex Horab, Lindsay Katai and Justin Michael. Voice cast includes Jeremy Crutchley, Robbie Daymond, Lena Headey, Ernie Hudson, Ashley Johnson, Kate Mulgrew and Matthew Rhys. 40 eleven-minute episodes, plus the pilot. Colour. / The series was much anticipated, the 2016 pilot garnering 4.8 million ...
Brazil
Brazilian Proto SF is being slowly rediscovered in the last decades, revealing some works that shed light on the problematic relationship between scientific ideas and the literature of fiction in the country. An early important text is Páginas da história do Brasil, escritas no ano 2000 ["Pages of a History of Brazil, Written in the Year 2000"] (1868-1872 in the newspaper O Jequitinhonha) by Joaquim Felício dos Santos (1828-1895), ...
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 ...