SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Tuesday 17 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 16 February 2026
Sponsor of the day: Andy Richards of Cold Tonnage Books
Heavy Metal
Glossy letter-size US colour Comic-strip magazine inspired by the French magazine Métal Hurlant and initially reprinting English-language versions of mainly sf and fantasy material from this and other French, Italian and Spanish sources alongside similar matter by select US contributors. Published monthly April 1977-December 1985, quarterly from the Winter (i.e., January) 1986 issue and then bimonthly from March 1989, ...
Beyond the Stellar Empire
Role Playing Game (1981). Adventures By Mail. Designed by Jack Everitt, Robert Cook, Michael Popolizio. / Beyond the Stellar Empire was a Play by Mail game created in the US, resembling a massively multiplayer Space Sim such as EVE Online (2003) but mediated entirely through text and run in slow motion. In 1992 the UK company KJC Games (KJC) ...
Wren, M K
(1938-2016) US author who initially concentrated on mysteries, the Conan Flagg series being nonfantastic. Her Phoenix Legacy trilogy – Sword of the Lamb (1981), Shadow of the Swan (1981) and House of the Wolf (1981) – uses a carefully thought out Future History to justify an intricate plot which compounds together Space Opera, romance and political thriller ...
Donnelly, H Grattan
(1850-1931) Irish-born playwright and author, in US from early manhood; he wrote three sf novels: The Coming Crown (1880 chap), a Satire on tendencies he detected for the American presidency to become a form of monarchy in the Near Future; '84, a Political Revelation (1883 chap), which predicts further postbellum turmoils; and The Stricken Nation (1890 chap), depicting a ...
When the Wind Blows
Animated film (1986). Meltdown Productions. Directed by Jimmy T Murakami. Written by Raymond Briggs, based on his own When the Wind Blows (graph 1982). Cast includes John Mills and Peggy Ashcroft. 84 minutes. Colour. / Before turning his bestselling Graphic Novel into a screenplay, Briggs made a Radio adaption, with the unfortunate effect that When the Wind Blows is ...
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 ...