SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Tuesday 8 July 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 7 July 2025
Sponsor of the day: The League of Fan Funds
Living Worlds
The notion that a planet might be a living creature is a rather startling one; indeed, it was initially used purely for its shock value. In R A Kennedy's remarkable philosophical extravaganza The Triuneverse (1912), Mars begins to reproduce by binary fission and its daughter cells devour much of the solar system. In "When the World Screamed" (25 February-3 March 1928 Liberty; April-May 1928 ...
Lensman [series]
Influential Space Opera series created by E E Smith (whom see for full discussion). Other authors of stories set in the Lensman universe are William Ellern, Hideyuki Furuhashi and David Kyle, the last focusing on the three Alien allies of the main series hero Kim Kinnison who like him ...
Old Dark House, The
US letter-size saddle-stapled Cinema Fanzine printed on newsprint. Publisher and editor: George LaVoo. Two numbered issues, 1976 and 1977. / This short-lived Monster Movies magazine showed potential and is of some interest despite its swift failure. The second issue carried a lengthy cover story on The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). ...
Beast with a Million Eyes, The
Film (1955; vt The Beast with 1,000,000 Eyes!). San Mateo Productions, American Releasing Corporation (see American International Pictures). Executive producers: James H Nicholson and Samuel Z Arkoff. Produced by David Kramarsky. Written by Tom Filer. Directed by Kramarsky and Roger Corman (uncredited). Cast includes Paul Birch, Dona Cole, Chester Conklin, Dick Sargent (credited as Richard ...
Fergus, Dyjan
Pseudonym used by Canadian bookkeeper and chemist Ida May Ferguson (1871-1899) – whose married name from 1898 was Thompson – for her only novel, Tisab Ting; or, The Electrical Kiss (1896). This tale, one of the earliest Canadian sf novels and apparently the first by a Canadian woman, is set a century in the future of its time of writing, and tells of a man from newly powerful China who comes to Canada in hopes of marrying the daughter of his ...
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 ...