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Sunday 12 July 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.
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Thomas, Rob
(1965- ) US author responsible for three Ties to the X-Files universe in the Shared World X-Files Young Adults Series, beginning with Control (1997) as by Everett Owens. Under his own name, his Young Adult tale Green Thumb (1999) features a young protagonist who discovers, while spending his summer vacation, that the ...
Guirdham, Arthur
(1905-1992) UK physician, psychiatrist and author, usually on topics related to his professional work, though also some speculative works on the occult and the Cathar religion; of sf interest is The Lights Were Going Out (1944), in which a Dystopia succeeds a premature peace that ends World War Two (see Hitler Wins). [JC]
Kesey, Ken
(1935-2001) US author, best known for his first published novel, the nonfantastic One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962), and for his central role in creating the avowedly countercultural "Merry Pranksters" in 1964, as memorably described in Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968). Of sf interest is Sailor Song (1992), a Near Future tale set around 2020 in a seaside town in Alaska, among whose inhabitants are ...
Zeiram
Film (1991 Japan; vt Zeram). Tōhō. Directed by Keita Amemiya. Written by Keita Amemiya and Hajime Matsumoto. Cast includes Yūko Moriyama. 92 minutes. Colour. / The titular Alien Shapeshifter, whose only vulnerable spot is its face, attacks planet Earth but is temporarily contained by the off-world bounty-hunter Iria (Moriyama) within a Pocket Universe called the ...
SFTV
Letter-size saddle-stapled Television magazine printed on a mix of newsprint and middle-grade paper. HSJ Publications. Editor: Robert Strauss. Possibly sixteen issues on a quarterly schedule, 1984 to 1989. / One of the very few publications devoted to Fantasy and science fiction television programmes, this title is now largely forgotten but served an important purpose in the years before the Internet. Television episode guides were ...
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 ...