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Tuesday 13 January 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 12 January 2026
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von Däniken, Erich
(1935-2026) Swiss author of a series of purportedly nonfiction books, beginning with Erinnerungen an die Zukunft (1968; trans Michael Heron as Chariots of the Gods? 1969), which, based on a mass of often suspect and internally inconsistent data, argues that the Earth was visited by at least one Alien spacefaring race before and at the dawn of historical time; thus, for example, the Great Pyramid of ...
Avatar
Film (2009). Twentieth Century Fox in association with Dune Entertainment and Ingenious Film Partners present a Lightstorm Entertainment production. Written and directed by James Cameron. Cast includes Stephen Lang, Joel David Moore, Giovanni Ribisi, Michelle Rodriguez, Zoë Saldana, Sigourney Weaver and Sam Worthington. Original version 162 minutes; 2010 Special Edition 170 minutes. Colour, 3D. / Cameron's first science fiction film since ...
Blaue Palais, Das
["The Blue Palace"] German tv miniseries (1974; 1976). Produced by German Bavaria Atelier Studios in co-operation with French Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française (ORTF). Created, written, and directed by Rainer Erler. Cast includes Peter Fricke, Dieter Laser, Evelyn Opela and Eva Renzi. Five 90-minute episodes, three broadcast in 1974 and two in 1976. Colour. / Named after the feudal mansion in Germany that provides ...
Peynado, Brenda
(1985- ) US author who began publishing work of genre interest with "The Tsunami" in Phantom Drift for October 2015; much of her work in short form, which ranges through Magic Realism to fairly straightforward sf, is assembled in The Rock Eaters (coll 2021). The waif biota Aliens who have arrived on Earth, effectively as migrants, in The Kite Maker (29 August 2018 ...
Parkman, Sydney
(1895-1995) UK author, usually of adventure fiction, but including two humorous sf tales: Ship Ashore (1936), in which the descendants of a seventeenth-century shipwreck are found on a mysterious Island off the coast of Borneo, and Life Begins Tomorrow (1947), the latter set in the Near Future. [JC]
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 ...