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Sunday 12 July 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.
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Arreola, Juan José
(1918-2001) Mexican author and academic whose full name was Juan José Arreola Zúñiga. Best known for his fantastic short stories, especially the Kafkaesque "El guardagujas" ["The Switchman"] (7 May 1950 México en la Cultura), he is considered one of Mexico's premier experimental short story authors and one of the masters, alongside Jorge Luis Borges, of the essay-story. Borges also described ...
Christopher, John
Principal working name of UK author Sam Youd (1922-2012), whose birth forename was Sam rather than Samuel; he adopted the first name Christopher on confirmation into the Church of England, but was never so called by intimates although many sources give his full name as Christopher Samuel Youd. He was active in sf Fandom (see The Fantast; The Satellite) before World War Two, in which he served; ...
Fandom
Active readers of sf and fantasy (see Science Fiction) can be called fans. Fans who also maintain contacts with other fans through Fanzines and Conventions can be described as participating in Fandom, a loose affinity group (or set of groups) whose origins go back to the late 1920s, shortly after the appearance of the first SF Magazines, where from an early date ...
Price, Lissa
(? - ) US author of a Young Adult Dystopia, Starters (2012), set in a Near Future America devastated by a "genocide spore" that has killed off anyone not vaccinated; as only children and old people were vaccinated in time, the survivors occupy a world whose operational heart has been evacuated. Teenagers are induced to rent their bodies for short ...
Penswick, Neil
(1962- ) UK author of a Tie for the Doctor Who universe, Doctor Who New Adventures: The Pit (1993). [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 ...