SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Thursday 19 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 18 February 2026
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Race in SF
Racial matters have long been a very highly charged category of Politics. Early science-fictional discussion of the problems of race relations would often distance the issues by a metaphorical transfer to the imaginary or Alien societies of Lost Worlds and other planets, since serious speculation tended to be swamped by anxious fantasies – notably the spectre of the ...
Scarlet – The Film Magazine
US letter-size saddle-stapled Cinema magazine printed on middle-grade paper. Publisher and editor: Harry Long. Ten numbered, undated issues, 2008 to 2013. Publication schedule irregular. / This follow-up to Scarlet Street magazine was founded by former staff member Long – in company with others connected to the previous title – as a Semiprozine which focused more closely on classic ...
Carr, John F
(1944- ) US author who began publishing sf with The Ophidian Conspiracy (1976), an unpretentious Space Opera which demonstrated considerable imagination but a stylistic gaucheness; both characteristics mark his subsequent novels, Pain Gain (1977) and Carnifax Mardi Gras (extract February 1982 Fantasy Book as "Dance of the Dwarfs"; 1982), though the latter shows a ...
Fantastic Monsters of the Films
Cinema magazine, small Bedsheet-size, issued by Black Shield Productions. Seven issues from 1962 to 1963, on a bimonthly roughly schedule. Publishers were sf fan Bob Burns and film special effects artist Paul Blaisdell. Edited by Ron Haydock. Considerable material was contributed by author Jim Harmon. The magazine was a high-quality attempt to produce a more-mature ...
Gott, Samuel
(1614-1671) UK parliamentarian and author. Son of an ironmonger, educated at Cambridge and the Inns of Court, Gott was a Presbyterian and a member of the circle around educational reformer Samuel Hartlib. In 1645 he was elected to parliament for Winchelsea, but was excluded in Pride's Purge of 1648. In the same year he published a Utopia, Nova Solymæ Libri Sex (1648 2vols; trans Walter Begley as ...
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 ...