SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Tuesday 28 June 2022
Welcome to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Fourth Edition. Some sample entries appear below. Click here for the Introduction; here for the masthead; here for 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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Time Abyss
The recognition of deep Time – the realization of truly awesome timescales – is one of sf's staple generators of Sense of Wonder. It is not solely the bald statement of temporal immensities which brings this thrill, but the sense that the gulf is or will be spanned by some understanding, some process, though the barely ponderable temporal immensity concealing from human view the heart of the Empire in Franz Kafka's "The Great Wall of China" (written 1917; many posthumous printings ...
Darkover [series]
Popular sequence of Planetary Romances by Marion Zimmer Bradley (whom see for fuller discussion), beginning with The Planet Savers (November 1958 Amazing; 1962 dos) and The Sword of Aldones (1962) – though these are preceded in internal chronology by Darkover Landfall (1972), in which the first human colonists reach the planet Darkover, and by other prequel volumes. The flavour is of Science Fantasy, with much conflict revolving around Psi Powers and Psionic "matrix" crystals; strong ...
Hoffman, Kurt
An Australian pseudonym or more likely a House Name used on one novella-length Scientific Thrillers tale of sf interest, Blackmarket Brains (1949 chap), in which a surgeon is forced to engage in criminal acts of Identity Transfer by transplanting brains of criminals into innocent bodies. [JC]
Pears' Annual
A Christmas annual published by A & F Pears, the firm noted for their soap and made even more famous by their advertisements using the painting Bubbles by Sir John Everett Millais. The annual appeared each year from 1891 to 1926. Most issues, except the last few, were in large tabloid format (15.75 x 11 in; 400 x 280 mm) and were heavily illustrated with a selection of Christmas features and stories. Of special interest is the Annual for 1919 which brought together a series of stories and ...
Johnson, Owen
(1878-1952) US author in various genres, most of his work being Young Adult novels such as the Lawrenceville sequence, which focuses on school life; the best-known of these titles is The Varmint (1910). The protagonist of The Coming of the Amazons: A Satiristic Speculation on the Scientific Future of Civilization (1931) finds, on awakening in 2181 CE from Suspended Animation, that women rule and that a simple sex-role reversal between the sexes (see Gender) is enough to account for (to him) ...
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 and one Semiprozine Hugo for his self-produced news magazine, Ansible (which see). His one ...