SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Monday 19 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.
Site updated on 14 January 2026
Sponsor of the day: John Howard
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 ...
Lim, Thea
(? - ) Canadian author, now in USA, whose first novel, The Same Woman (2007), is nonfantastic [it is not listed below]. She is of sf interest for her second, An Ocean of Minutes (2018), set in an Alternate World version of 1980 as a deadly Pandemic threatens civilization. The protagonist is given a chance to ...
Desfontaines, Pierre François Guyot
(1685-1745) French Jesuit, who left the order in 1715; critic, controversialist, translator and author; he is now remembered primarily for his quarrels with Voltaire. After translating Jonathan Swift's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and Then a Captain of Several Ships (1726 4vols) in 1727, he published ...
Teenagers from Outer Space
US film (1959; vt Invasion of the Gargon; vt The Gargon Terror; vt The Ray Gun Terror UK). Tom Graeff Productions/Warner Brothers Pictures. Directed and produced by Tom Graeff. Written by Graeff. Cast includes Dawn Bender (credited as Dawn Anderson), Harvey B Dunn (Gramps Morgan), Tom Graeff (credited as Tom Lockyear – Joe Rogers), Bryan Grant, David Love, King Moody (spacecraft captain) and Gene Sterling. 86 minutes cut to 72 minutes for home video release. ...
Robinson, Roger
(1943- ) UK computer programmer, bibliographer and publisher, active in UK Fandom for many years. The Writings of Henry Kenneth Bulmer (1983 chap; rev 1984 chap) is an exhaustive Bibliography of one of the most prolific sf writers, Kenneth Bulmer, and Who's Hugh?: An SF Reader's Guide to Pseudonyms (1987) is similarly exhaustive in its ...