SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Wednesday 18 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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Roger, Aristide
Working name of French physician and author Pierre-Jules Aristide Rengade Roger (1841-1915), whose Aventures extraordinaires de Trinitus; ou le Voyage sous les flots, rédigés d'après le journal de bord de l'Éclair (first appeared October 1867-last instalment unknown Le Petit Journal; 1868; trans Brian Stableford as Voyage Beneath the Waves 2013) is a ...
Land that Time Forgot, The
1. Film (1975). Amicus. Directed by Kevin Connor. Written by Michael Moorcock, James Cawthorn, adapted from The Land that Time Forgot (stories September-November 1918 Blue Book; fixup 1924) by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Cast includes Doug McClure, John McEnery and Susan Penhaligon. 95 minutes. Colour. / This UK ...
Phillips, Michael J
(1879-1932) US soldier, editor and author, active contributor of fiction to magazines from 1903 to around 1926; in his Future War tale, In Our Country's Service (1909), the war of 1938 between an augmented America – the Invasion of Canada has led to its being "annexed" in 1928 – and a powerful Japan (see Yellow Peril) ends in the latter's swift defeat, due to the ...
Space Fact and Fiction
UK magazine in slim standard Pulp format. Eight monthly issues March to October 1954, several undated, published and edited by Gerald Swan, London. It published mainly reprints from wartime issues of Future Fiction and Science Fiction Stories, slanted towards the juvenile reader, but also new stories; the April 1954 issue was all new, though of no merit. An album of unsold copies in jumbled ...
Psychohistory
A much-loved item of sf Terminology, coined in Isaac Asimov's very popular sequence Foundation (May 1942-January 1950 Astounding; fixups 1951-1953); it should not be confused with the identical term sometimes used by historians, which refers to the study of the relation of psychological motives to historical process. The attractive but purely ...
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 ...