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Saturday 7 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 6 February 2026
Sponsor of the day: Paul Giamatti
Sallis, James
(1944-2026) US musician, poet and author, briefly active in New Worlds during its Michael Moorcock-directed New-Wave phase; he began to publish work of genre interest in this context with "Kazoo" (August 1967 New Worlds) and co-edited the magazine 1968-1969. His clearly acknowledged models in the French avant garde and the gnomic brevity of much of his work ...
Stern, J David
(1886-1971) US newspaper publisher and author. His Eidolon: A Philosophical Phantasy Built on a Syllogism (1952) tells of a virgin birth (see Religion) and an enigmatic Messiah figure. Stern should not be confused with his son, David J Stern (1909-2003), who created Francis the Talking Mule in his novel Francis (1946). [PN/DRL]
Stardate
US Games Magazine, letter-size in Slick format, published first by gaming company FASA for issues #1-#7 (which included two double issues), November 1984 to July/August 1985. These issues contained no fiction, but did have sf reviews and articles. With #8 (October 1985) Stardate changed hands (to Associates International, Inc, Delaware), subtitle (becoming Stardate: The Multi-Media Science Fiction Magazine), editors ...
Dewey, Katharine Fay
(1865-?1953) US author whose only novel, Star People (1910), describes First Contact between a group of Scientists and an Extraterrestrial source; attempts at mutual Communication lead to visions of an ethically superior Utopian civilization in the stars.[JC]
Anderson, Iain F
(1902-? ) Scottish solicitor and travel author of the 1930s whose sf novel, Cypher 8 (1939), is a Near Future thriller involving a Ray Gun of sorts. [JC]
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 ...