SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Thursday 12 March 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 9 March 2026
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Frank Reade Library
US Dime-Novel SF series, letter-size. 191 issues (though #188-#191 are reprints of #1-#4) 24 September 1892 to 8 August 1898, weekly to 8 June 1894 (#82), biweekly from then on. Cost five cents. Published by Frank Tousey, Publisher, New York. (Partial reissue 1902-1904, partial UK reprint.) All issues were printed on very poor paper and seldom survive in good condition; the 1902-1904 reissue, with coloured covers, is sometimes considered more desirable than ...
Bannister, Andrew
(1965- ) UK author whose Spin trilogy beginning with Creation Machine (2016) is primarily set, at least initially, in the eponymous Macrostructure, a constructed ensemble of something like ninety planets revolving around twenty-one suns (see Stars), a vast complex assembled (and in a sense manufactured) by what may be a Forerunner civilization. The ...
Ogden, Aimee
(? - ) US author who began to publish work of genre interest with "The Light of the Moon, the Strength of the Storm, the Warmth of the Sun" in Frozen Fairy Tales (anth 2015) edited by Kate Wolford. Her first-written novel, Local Star (2021), combines Space Opera action, partly set in a Space Habitat under threat from something like a ...
Macdonald, Kate
(1964- ) UK academic, editor, publisher and author, with the University of Ghent between 2006 and 2015. Nonfiction studies include several works on John Buchan, beginning with John Buchan: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction (2009), a central focus here being a convincing attempt to represent Buchan in a context free of the tired consensus that his fiction fatally reflected the Imperialism and ...
Sheehan, Perley Poore
(1875-1943) US screenwriter, journalist and author responsible for much magazine fiction, though he was initially best known for a play, Efficiency: A Play in One Act (August 1917 McClure's Magazine; vt "Blood and Iron: A Play in One Act" October 1917 Strand; 1917 chap) with Robert Hobart Davis (1869-1942), in which a German Mad Scientist transforms the fatally wounded ...
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 ...