SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Saturday 14 March 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 9 March 2026
Sponsor of the day: Paul Giamatti
AI
The common acronym for Artificial Intelligence, an item of Terminology used increasingly often in information science, and hence in sf, since the late 1970s. Most writers would agree that for a Computer or other Machine of some sort to qualify as an AI it must be self-aware. There are as yet none such in the real world. Controversy continues regarding the feasibility of "strong AI", the creation of ...
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association
A professional guild created in 1965 as Science Fiction Writers of America, to inform sf writers on matters of professional interest, to promote their professional welfare, and to help them deal effectively with publishers, agents, editors and anthologists; in 1992 (see below) it was renamed the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America while retaining the initial SFWA; in March 2022 it was announced that these same initials would henceforth stand for the more global Science Fiction and ...
Morrow Project, The
Role Playing Game (1980). Timeline Inc (TI). Designed by Kevin Dockery, Robert Sadler, Richard Tucholka. / The shadow of the World War Three that never came, a nuclear conflict between the USA and the Soviet Union, looms large over this game. The mechanics of all three editions – two from 1980 and one from 1983, all developed by TI – are highly detailed and emphasize realistic combat, reflecting ...
Brown, Alphonse
Working name of French author Joseph-Maxmilien-André Brown (1841-1902), whose first novel, La Conquête de l'air: 40 jours de navigation aérienne (1875; trans Brian Stableford as The Conquest of the Air: Forty Days of Aerial Navigation 2013) (see Transportation), was clearly modeled on the early novels of Jules Verne, and built upon the ...
Travis, John
(? - ) UK author who began to publish work of genre interest with "The Splintered Forest" in Phantoms for March 1997, assembled with other short fiction in Mostly Monochrome Stories (coll 2009), a title belied by the author's vivid mixing of genres and tonalities (see Horror in SF). He is of sf interest specifically for the patently Equipoisal Benji Spriteman ...
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 ...