SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Friday 16 October 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 12 October 2026
Sponsor of the day: David Cowhig
Edwards, Malcolm
(1949-2026) UK editor, critic and publisher, educated at Cambridge, where he graduated in anthropology. Active in UK sf Fandom in the 1970s and early 1980s, he published the first complete text of James Blish's "The Science in Science Fiction" (May 1951-May 1952 Science Fiction Quarterly) in his Fanzine Quicksilver #2 in 1971; edited the ...
Hendrix, Jimi
(1942-1970) US singer and performer, acclaimed by many as the most gifted guitarist ever captured on recording. After mixed success on the American circuit Hendrix came to London in 1966 and formed "The Jimi Hendrix Experience", whose blend of rock, blues, psychedelia and Hendrix's inspired guitar soloing established his reputation. Science fiction was always an important influence upon Hendrix's spacey, futuristic sound – for example the title of his second single, "Purple Haze" ...
Mutant X
US tv series (2001-2004). Fireworks Entertainment/Tribune Entertainment/Marvel Studios. Syndicated. Created by Avi Arad. Produced by Adam Haight and Peter Mohan. Cast includes Karen Cliche, Forbes March, Victoria Pratt, John Shea, Lauren Lee Smith and Victor Webster. Directors included Andrew Potter, Bill Corcoran, Jorge Mantesi. Writers included Marak Amato, Howard Chaykin and David Newman. 66 44-minute episodes. Colour. / Mutant X is the name ...
Shaviro, Steven
(1954- ) US academic and culture critic, a full-time academic from 1984, with the University of Washington until 2004, and with Wayne State University until his 2023 full-pay suspension for an intemperate utterance online. Doom Patrols: A Theoretical Fiction about Postmodernism (1997) plays on its subject matter through an urgently postmodern idiom. Discognition (2016) examines the nature of consciousness as it might apply to ...
Dingle, A E
(1879-1947) UK seaman and author, chiefly of sea stories, many published as by Captain Dingle. His pseudonyms include Brian Cotterell and, more prolifically, "Sinbad". It has been suggested that Fletcher's Island (1932; vt Sinister Eden 1934) as by Brian Cotterell is sf or supernatural, but it is in fact a detective novel in an exotic setting. As "Sinbad", he wrote two Lost World tales, Pirates May Fly (1943) and ...
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 ...