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Tuesday 17 February 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 16 February 2026
Sponsor of the day: Andy Richards of Cold Tonnage Books
Wibberley, Leonard
(1915-1983) Irish journalist and author, in the UK from about 1930, in the US from 1943, who published over 100 books, some of his detective fiction being as by Leonard Holton; much of his work was for children, many of these titles being as by Patrick O'Connor or Christopher Webb. Only a modest proportion of his output was sf or fantasy. His first and most famous sf novel, the ostensibly adult tale which begins the Grand Fenwick Ruritanian spoof sequence, ...
Dawson, Les
(1931-1993) UK stand-up and television comedian, whose self-mocking, pantomime-based, "working-class" humour made a strong impact on a very wide audience; of his several novels, A Time Before Genesis: A Novel of the Future's Past (1986), a seriously overwritten Near Future tale dousing its sf elements in Horror tropes as the protagonists discover the true masters of the universe. [JC]
Smith, Howard S
(? - ) Canadian author whose sf novel, Howard S Smith's I, Robot (2008), while its author explicitly disavows any connection with any other story or film with the familiar title, does clearly depend on most of them in the Technothriller story of a twenty-first century Robot detective bound by the three ...
Ellis, T Mullett
(1850-1919) UK architect, politician, poet and author of various works, two being of sf interest. Reveries of World History: From Earth's Nebulous Origin to its Final Ruin; Or, the Romance of a Star (1893) is an elated quasi-fictional text evocative of the work of Camille Flammarion; in his Spectrum of Fantasy 2 (1994), George Locke argues for its relevance as an sf "prose poem". Zalma ...
Demon Lord 2099
Japanese animated tv series (2024; original title Maō 2099). J C Staff. Directed by Ryō Andō. Written by Yūichirō Momose, based on the Manga by Daigo Murasaki and Kureta. Voice cast includes Hana Hishikawa, Satoshi Hino, Miku Itō, Masaya Matsukaze, Daisuke Namikawa and Kaori Nazuka. Twelve 24-minute episodes. Colour. / Nearly 500 years ago the war in Alneath between mortals and ...
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 ...