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Saturday 12 September 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 7 September 2026
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Balsdon, Dacre
(1901-1977) academic, historian and author, who signed his nonfiction as J P V D Balsdon, Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford 1927-1969; his sf novels are humorous Satires on contemporary mores, little allowance being made for technological, social or behavioural change. The most imaginative, Sell England? (1936), is a Dystopia set 1000 years hence in which the UK is inhabited solely by a decadent aristocracy, while the other ...
October, John
Pseudonym of UK author Christopher Portway (1923-2009) whose sf novel for Robert Hale Limited, The Anarchy Pedlars (1976), is set in a Near Future world threatened by a revived cult of assassins. [JC]
Exploits of Elaine, The
US silent Serial Film (1914). Whartons Studios. Directed by Louis J Gasnier, George B Seitz, Leopold Wharton and Theodore Wharton. Written by Basil Dickey, Charles W Goddard, Arthur B Reeve and George B Seitz. Cast includes Arnold Daly, Sheldon Lewis and Pearl White. 14 episodes. Black and white. / This serial film, probably the first with sf elements throughout, starred Pearl White as Elaine; she had previously ...
Stab, Martin J
(? - ) US author of an sf novel, Eden-459 (2002), based on the premise that after the 1947 UFO landings in Roswell Aliens have infiltrated human society; as the story develops, with Earth being threatened by an Asteroid, the children of these aliens are locked into a one-way voyage to another planet, with consequences for the entire galaxy. [JC]
Tree of Palme, A
Japanese animated film (2002). Original title Parumu no Ki. Palm Studio, Genco. Directed and written by Takashi Nakamura. Voice cast includes Yurika Hino, Akiko Hiramatsu, Motomu Kiyokawa, Kouka, Daisuke Sakaguchi and Megumi Toyoguchi. 137 minutes, Colour. / On a planet where immense fish swim through the sky (see Life on Other Worlds), "the kooloop tree thrives on the particles of memory that it soaks up from ...
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 ...