SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Saturday 21 September 2024
Welcome to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Fourth Edition. Some sample entries appear below. Click here for the Introduction; here for the masthead; here for 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 17 September 2024
Sponsor of the day: Janine G Stinson
Scott, T H
(1878-? ) UK author of adventure novels for boys; of sf interest is The Treasure Trail: A Tale of Adventure on the Amazon (1931), in which boy companions penetrate far upstream in an advanced motorboat, where they find traces of a Lost World. [JC]
Dyson Sphere
Item of sf/scientific Terminology named for a concept put forward by the physicist Freeman J Dyson. According to Dyson, the logical power source for a sufficiently advanced galactic civilization would derive from the reconstruction of its solar system into an artificial biosphere completely enclosing – and thus trapping the maximum possible energy output from – the local sun. This original concept should more ...
World, the Flesh and the Devil, The
Film (1959). HarbelProductions/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Directed by Ranald MacDougall. Written by Ferdinand Reyher and MacDougall, nominally based on The Purple Cloud (1901) by M P Shiel. Cast includes Harry Belafonte, Mel Ferrer and Inger Stevens. 95 minutes. Black and white. / Ralph Burton (Belafonte), an African-American mine inspector, is trapped Underground by a cave-in. He can hear rescuers attempting to ...
Pollution
Early sf stories dealing with catastrophes brought about by pollution of the environment (see Ecology) tended to concentrate on the perils of smog; they include William Delisle Hay's The Doom of the Great City (1880) and Robert Barr's "The Doom of London" (November 1892 Idler). The pollutant effects of industrial waste were very familiar in the ...
Mistral, Bengo
A House Name of the London-based Gannet Press, used for Norman A Lazenby's The Brains of Helle (fixup 1953) and for two other novels: Pirates of Cerebus (fixup 1953) by B Ward, based on Ward's stories in John Spencer magazines (see Badger Books); and Space Flight 139 (1954), whose author has not been identified. [JC/DRL]
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 ...