SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Friday 20 June 2025
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 16 June 2025
Sponsor of the day: Ansible Editions
Forsyth, Frederick
(1938-2025) UK author who gained fame with his first novel, The Day of the Jackal (1971), and whose books are generally political thrillers. The Shepherd (1975 chap), however, is a sentimental Timeslip or ghost fantasy in which a pilot on Christmas Eve 1957 is saved from crashing by a World War Two pilot in an antique bomber: pilot and plane had been shot down on the Christmas Eve of 1943. ...
Vargo Statten Science Fiction Magazine
UK magazine published by Scion, London, for the first seven issues, then Dragon Publications; edited by "Vargo Statten", a pseudonym of Alistair Paterson (1902-1976) for seven issues, and thereafter of John Russell Fearn. 19 issues, January 1954 to [February] 1956. Nominally monthly, but see below. / All but the first two issues were undated. The first three issues were standard Pulp size, if a little thin, then large ...
Gay, J Drew
(1846-1890) UK journalist, politician, explorer and author in whose The Mystery of the Shroud: A Tale of Socialism (1887) a fog gives a socialist secret society the chance to conquer England in the Near Future, but the chance is muffed. [JC]
Nova SF
The title of one professional SF Magazine in Italy – which see for Nova Sf* (1985-2009) – and two Amateur Magazines, one UK and one US. / 1. UK Amateur Magazine produced by Adrian Hodges, Cheltenham in octavo format. It saw five slim issues from Spring 1990 to #5 (undated but late 1992). It was one of a wave of British little ...
Winslow, Helen M
(1851-1938) US author, much of whose work advocates a moderate Feminism in which the central focus seems to be on equality of opportunity between the sexes, as in the nonfantastic A Woman for Mayor: A Novel of To-Day (1909), whose victorious female mayor is much interested in hygiene, and has the city scrubbed clean. Of sf interest is the Near Future Salome Shepard, Reformer (1893), the eponymous ...
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 ...