SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Thursday 16 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.
Site updated on 14 July 2026
Sponsor of the day: Andy Richards of Cold Tonnage Books
Lorraine, Paul
A House Name for Curtis Warren, used by William Henry Bird for Two Worlds (1952), John Russell Fearn for Dark Boundaries (1953) and John S Glasby in collaboration with Arthur Roberts for Zenith-D (1952). [PN/JC/DRL]
Yacht
Also known as YΔCHT. American electropop band, founded by Jona Bechtolt (1980- ). The group is more fully integrated into digital culture than many – initially created for an "art and technology platform" entitled "Crap-tops versus Laptops" organized by New York's Museum of Modern Art, Yacht add Powerpoint presentations, software piracy and integrated blogging and vlogging to the usual recording-and-touring business of being in a band. Their fourth album, ...
Engle, Eloise
Working name of US author Eloise Katherine Engle Paananen (1923-1993). Her sf novel, Countdown for Cindy (1962), is a light Space Opera whose heroine, an Aerospace Force nurse, becomes the first American woman to visit the Moon. [JC/DRL]
Baker, Scott
(1947- ) US-born author, who spent much of his career in France; for most of that career he has written fantasy and horror, some of it with distinction; his only sf novel is his first book, Symbiote's Crown (1978), a slyly intelligent though uneasily metaphysical Space Opera involving intricate hegiras through Parallel Worlds. Its French edition won the 1982 Prix Apollo for best SF novel ...
Upload
This real-world term for the transfer of data to a remote Computer (for example, new or amended web pages to a website host) has taken on a special sf significance as denoting the copying or transfer of a human or other personality to a sentient software representation. Interesting early examples are "Ghost" (May 1943 Astounding) by Henry Kuttner and C L Moore, in which the ...
Robinson, Roger
(1943- ) UK computer programmer, bibliographer and publisher, active in UK Fandom for many years. The Writings of Henry Kenneth Bulmer (1983 chap; rev 1984 chap) is an exhaustive Bibliography of one of the most prolific sf writers, Kenneth Bulmer, and Who's Hugh?: An SF Reader's Guide to Pseudonyms (1987) is similarly exhaustive in its ...