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Saturday 15 August 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 10 August 2026
Sponsor of the day: Paul Giamatti
Crowley, John
(1942-2026) US teacher and author who also worked in documentary films and television for some time beginning in 1966. His sf novels have had a considerable impact on the field, and his fantasies established him as a figure whose work courteously but deeply stretched the boundaries of genre literature. / His first novel, The Deep (1975), is set on a flat discworld resting on a pillar that extends beyond measurement into the circumambient galactic Deep, in which very few stars ...
Kerner, Charlotte
(1950- ) German author of fiction and nonfiction primarily for the Young Adult market. Titles not yet translated include Geboren 1999: Eine Zukunftsgeschichte ["Born 1999: A Future History"] (1991) and Kopflos ["Headless"] (2008). Blueprint/Blaupause (1999; trans Elizabeth D Crawford as Blueprint 2000), filmed as Blueprint (2003), depicts the ...
Beast of Hollow Mountain, The
Film (1956; vt Valley of the Mists). Nassour Studios, Inc. Produced by Edward and William Nassour. Directed by Edward Nassour, Ismael Rodriguez. Written by Robert Hill and Jack DeWitt from an idea by Willis H O'Brien. Cast includes Guy Madison, Patricia Medina (Sarita), Mario Navarro (Panchito), Eduardo Noriega (Enrique Rios) and Carlos Rivas (Felipe Sanchez). Dinosaur animation by Henry Lyon, Edward Nassour (uncredited). 79 minutes. Colour. / ...
Starr, Bill
(1933-2021) US author primarily known for the Farstar and Son sequence of Space Opera adventures featuring a slightly rascally entrepreneur and his son: The Way to Dawnworld (1975) and The Treasure of Wonderwhat (1977). The books have something of the quaintness of their titles. Starr's other known sf consists of a single short story, "The People Who Could Not Kill" (in Stellar #3, anth 1977, ed Judy-Lynn ...
James, Edward
(1947- ) UK academic and editor – early involved in UK Fandom – who began teaching at University College, Dublin, in 1970, and moved to York University in 1978, where he became Director of the Centre for Medieval Studies in 1992; he was appointed Professor of History at the University of Reading in September 1995, and was there responsible with Patrick Parrinder for founding Reading's MA in ...
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 ...