SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Friday 6 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 6 February 2026
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Sallis, James
(1944-2026) US musician, poet and author, briefly active in New Worlds during its Michael Moorcock-directed New-Wave phase; he began to publish work of genre interest in this context with "Kazoo" (August 1967 New Worlds) and co-edited the magazine 1968-1969. His clearly acknowledged models in the French avant garde and the gnomic brevity of much of his work ...
Sound of My Voice
Film (2012). Fox Searchlight Pictures in association with 1737 Films/Skyscraper. Directed by Zal Batmanglij. Written by Marling & Batmanglij. Cast includes Chris Denham, Brit Marling and Nicole Vicius. 85 minutes. Colour. / A couple infiltrate a cult led by a woman claiming to be from the future and preparing for a coming apocalypse; they secretly film a documentary intended to expose her, but are drawn in different directions as their commitment is tested by a series of ...
Proto SF
Meaningful use of the term "proto science fiction" obviously depends on one's Definition of the term Science Fiction, just as the use of the term "taproot texts" [see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below] depends on a moderately stable definition of the term "fantasy"; indeed, the quest for sf's literary ancestry and "origins" is as much a dimension of ...
Strange Tales
1. US Pulp magazine, seven issues September 1931 to January 1933, published by Clayton Magazines; edited by Harry Bates. Strange Tales (subtitled "of Mystery and Terror") was a companion magazine to Astounding Stories (see Astounding Science-Fiction) and was similar in editorial policy to Weird Tales; it carried some borderline science fiction, such as "In the ...
Foyle, Naomi
(? - ) UK editor, poet and author whose first novel, Seoul Survivors (2013), is a Near Future thriller set just before a meteor known as Lucifer's Hammer threatens to devastate the planet, as in Larry Niven's and Jerry Pournelle's Lucifer's Hammer (1977), about a Comet striking Earth. A plot to use ...
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 ...