SF Encyclopedia Home Page
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
Blaine, Mahlon
(1894-1969) US illustrator, probably born Blain and adding the "e" later. He was a major figure in book Illustration before the Depression, which devastated his livelihood: although he continued to illustrate, much of his work was for non-mainstream publishers; towards the end of his life he returned to illustrate some Edgar Rice Burroughs reissues [see Checklist below]. Among books of genre interest that he illustrated ...
Outlander
Film (2008). The Weinstein Company and Virtual Films present an Ascendant Pictures and VIP 4 production in association with Rising Star. Directed by Howard McCain. Written by Dirk Blackman and Howard McCain. Cast includes Jim Caviezel, John Hurt, Jack Huston, Sophia Myles and Ron Perlman. 115 minutes. Colour. / Mysterious Stranger Kainan (Caviezel) crash-lands his Spaceship close to the Scandinavian Iron Age ...
Throssell, Ric
Working name of Australian diplomat, actor, playwright and author Richard Prichard Throssell (1922-1999), who during much of his career suffered from Cold War suspicions and Paranoia, a McCarthy-like persecution caused almost entirely by his remaining in contact with his leftwing family; his mother, the author Katharine Susannah Prichard (1883-1969), was a founding member of the Communist Party of Australia. Of sf interest is a ...
Miller, John J
(1954-2022) US author, who began publishing work of genre interest with "Comes a Hunter" in Wild Cards (anth 1987) edited by George R R Martin, followed shortly by his first Tie, Buck Rogers: First Power Play (1990), part of the Buck Rogers: The Inner Planets Trilogy subseries. He also contributed to the Ray Bradbury Presents sequence [see Checklist below]. His two ...
Bradley, Kaliane
(1988- ) UK editor and author in whose first novel, The Ministry of Time (2024), the extraction of living historical figures via Time Travel has become possible. Commander Graham Gore (1809-1847), an historical officer attached to the doomed Franklin Expedition to the Arctic in search of a Northwest Passage (see Imperialism), has been reawoken in a Near Future ...
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 ...