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
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Space Adventures (Classics)
US magazine, one of the reprint Digest-size magazines published by Sol Cohen's Ultimate Publishing Company. Six issues, Winter 1970 to Summer 1971. / The title was shortened to Space Adventures after the first two issues. The numbering ran, strangely, #9-#14, picking up where Science Fiction Classics left off, and Space Adventures (Classics) would be regarded as simply a ...
Diabolical Plots
US Online Magazine of sf, Fantasy, and horror with a speculative element, devised by and published David Steffen, who continues to head its team of editors. Monthly, May 2008 to current. / Founded by David Steffen to establish his own writing career, the magazine's early issues featured short stories, reviews, and essays by the editor as well as interviews with him; interviewees include Cat Rambo ...
Lanier, Sterling E
(1927-2007) US editor and author. Lanier did six years' graduate work at the School of Anthropology and Archeology at the University of Pennsylvania before working as an editor, mainly for Chilton Books for periods during 1961-1967; after several trade publishers had refused the book because of its great length (215,000 words), he persuaded the firm to publish Frank Herbert's Dune (fixup 1965). He subsequently turned freelance, working as a ...
Sabin, Edwin L
(1870-1952) US author and historian best known for his heavily researched boys' adventure novels. He began as a journalist with a penchant for poetry and his early fiction is light-hearted, almost presaging P G Wodehouse in its eccentricity. The Magic Mashie and Other Golfish Stories (coll 1902) is a volume of humorous golfing stories a few of which verge on the fantastic, such as "The Supersensitive Golf-Ball" about a golf-ball that reacts to ...
Childers, Erskine
(1870-1922) UK advocate of Irish nationalism, military theoretician and author, who lived both in the UK and Ireland. His Future War novel, The Riddle of the Sands: A Record of Secret Service Recently Achieved (1903), describes an exploratory sea journey into the Frisian Islands along the German coast, where its adventurous protagonists uncover secret plans for a German Invasion of the UK using shallow-draft vessels; ...
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 ...