SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Saturday 24 January 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.
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von Däniken, Erich
(1935-2026) Swiss author of a series of purportedly nonfiction books, beginning with Erinnerungen an die Zukunft (1968; trans Michael Heron as Chariots of the Gods? 1969), which, based on a mass of often suspect and internally inconsistent data, argues that the Earth was visited by at least one Alien spacefaring race before and at the dawn of historical time; thus, for example, the Great Pyramid of ...
Adams, Scott
(1957-2026) US author and cartoonist best known for the Dilbert strip published from 1989, which when at its best superbly (in terms of concept and accuracy of Satire rather than quality of drawing) satirized contemporary office life and corporate incompetence. As with most ambitious modern comic strips, it segues frequently into sf and fantasy tropes – such as Robot office workers, wish-fulfilling ...
Hemmingson, Michael
(1966-2014) US cultural anthropologist, screenwriter and author who began publishing work of genre interest with "Jack" in Midnight Zoo for 1993. His prolific output contains several works of sf interest, including Minstrels (1997), set in Near Future Paris where an American becomes embroiled in some action-thriller scenes intensified by – as in D G Compton's The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe ...
Moon Pilot
Film (1962). Walt Disney Films (see The Walt Disney Company). Directed by James Neilson. Written by Maurice Tombragel, based on Starfire (19 March-2 April 1960 Saturday Evening Post as "Moon Pilot"; 1960; vt Moon Pilot 1962) by Robert Buckner. Cast includes Brian Keith, Tommy Kirk, Edmond O'Brien, Dany Saval, Kent Smith, Bob Sweeney and ...
Hamilton, Cicely
Pseudonym under which UK playwright, actor, Feminist and author Mary Cicely Hammill (1872-1952) published all her adult work, though her children's fiction, including some stories for the Sexton Blake series, was written as by Scott Rae and by Max Hamilton. Her best-known plays are eloquently suffragist; they include How the Vote Was Won (1908 chap; first performed 1909) with Christopher St John (1871-1960) (who had decades previously abandoned ...
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 ...