SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Saturday 6 December 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 1 December 2025
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Stoppard, Tom
Working name of Czech-born playwright and screenwriter Tomáš Straussler (1937-2025), in the UK since 1946, the Stoppard surname being acquired from his stepfather when his widowed mother remarried in 1945. His early dramatic work was characterized by extravagant wit and wordplay, and an Absurdist application of logic to surreal or insane situations. Following the broadcast of several Radio plays, his ...
Gholston, Homer N
(1932-2021) US author of The Koiec Corollary (1979), a Near Future thriller in which a sudden flood of gold threatens to cause World War Three. The book is credited to J N Gholoston on the title page of this tale's only edition, who has not been traced; the name may have been intended as a pseudonym.[JC] /
Hildreth, Charles Lotin
(1853-1896) US journalist, poet, and author of a Lost Race Young Adult novel, The Mysterious City of OO: Adventures in Orbello Land (1889; vt OO: Adventures in Orbello Land 1889), set in the Australian outback. The teenaged protagonist, searching for his father who had disappeared years earlier, finds a lost, subterranean civilization – possibly of ancient Greek origins – flourishing among ...
Snowbeast
US made-for-tv film (1977). Douglas S Cramer Productions/NBC. Produced by Wilfred Lloyd Baumes. Directed by Herb Wallerstein. Written by Joseph Stefano. Cast includes Robert Logan, Yvette Mimieux, Sylvia Sidney, Bo Svenson and Clint Walker. 86 minutes. Colour. / A pair of young women at a Colorado ski resort are attacked and killed by something not clearly seen, an incident which is at first blamed upon a rogue bear. Head ski-patrol director Tony Rill (Logan) realizes at once that ...
Grant, Matthew
(? - ) UK author whose only sf novel is the unremarkable Space Opera Hyper-Drive (1962). [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 ...