SF Encyclopedia Home Page
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.
Site updated on 7 July 2026
Sponsor of the day: Ansible Editions
Anderson, Paul W S
(1965- ) English film-maker who has worked primarily for Hollywood. Aside from his UK-made debut Shopping (1994), all his films have been action-driven sf. He has worked as a director, producer and screenwriter, with a particular specialism in Videogame adaptations, a despised form which has made him easy to dismiss, but which he often transcends with inventive exploration of the distinctive narrative forms and adrenaline ...
Peterson, Margaret
(1883-1933) Indian author, in UK from 1910, also periodically in Uganda, active from 1914. At least three of her many novels have some sf interest: Deadly Nightshade (1924), a Lost Race tale in which a civilization of Ancient Egyptians is discovered in Africa, guarded by a race of ape-people (see Apes as Human) and ruled by a She figure; ...
Edson, Milan C
(1839-1921) US civil servant, farmer and author of Solaris Farm: A Story of the Twentieth Century (1900), an agrarian Utopia (see Agriculture), in which physical health and cleanliness are emphasized. He was the father-in-law of Elmer Gates (1856-1923), founder of the Elmer Gates Laboratory of Psychology and Psychurgy, whose theories about stimulating brain-growth in adults were espoused by John W ...
Snodgrass, Melinda M
(1951- ) US lawyer, television screenwriter and author who was strongly associated with Star Trek in her early career, her first novel being Star Trek: The Tears of the Singers (1984); she also served as Executive Script Consultant for the first two seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Of greater sf interest is the Circuit Trilogy – Circuit (1986), ...
Steuart, John A
(1861-1932) Scottish-born editor and author, in Canada for some years, subsequently in England. The Club Stories assembled as The Jolly Pashas: The Story of an Unphilanthropic Society (coll of linked stories 1892) are essentially nonfantastic, or debunked [see Rationalized Fantasy in The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below]. In the Day of Battle (1894) is a ...
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 ...