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Tuesday 24 June 2025
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.
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Gsell, Paul
(1870-1947) French critic and author, much of whose critical output concerned the life and work of Anatole France. He is of sf interest for L'Homme qui lit dans les âmes (1928; trans Brian Stableford with added material as The Man Who Could Read Minds, coll 2019), a tale featuring Telepathy achieved through mechanical means (eyeglasses capable of rendering ...
Hagedorn, Hermann
(1882-1964) US biographer and poet, active from around 1915, who is of sf interest for The Bomb That Fell on America (1946 chap), a poem (see Poetry) constructed as a Prediction of the new world created in the course of the "Trinity" project at Los Alamos: the new bomb may bring about the End of the World: "God have mercy on America!" But the Voice of God is unrelenting: "'The world is ...
Dai-Guard
Japanese animated tv series (1999-2000). Original title Chikyū Bōei Kigyō Dai Gādo. Xebec. Directed by Seiji Mizushima. Written by Fumihiko Shimo. Voice cast includes Akiko Hiramatsu, Shin-ichiro Miki, Kentaro Ito, Kenichi Ono and Mayumi Shintani. 26 23-minute episodes. Colour. / In 2018 Japan is attacked by a Heterodyne, a giant Monster that is defeated by OE weaponry (a nuclear bomb in all but name). ...
October, John
Pseudonym of UK author Christopher Portway (1923-2009) whose sf novel for Robert Hale Limited, The Anarchy Pedlars (1976), is set in a Near Future world threatened by a revived cult of assassins. [JC]
Chaykin, Howard V
(1950- ) US author/illustrator, mainly of Comics. Chaykin's first professional work was the 1973 art for Marvel Comics's War of the Worlds (a sequel to H G Wells's novel!) and DC Comics's Sword of Sorcery (which featured Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser). Much of his work has been sf. He was ...
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 ...