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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
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Kotlan, C M
(? - ) US author, all of whose sf was written in collaboration with G C Edmondson, who see for details. [JC]
Charnas, Suzy McKee
(1939-2023) US author and former teacher, with an MA in that field. She began publishing sf with the Holdfast Chronicles, an emotionally intense and tightly argued series of novels examining Gender relations and some of the possible consequences of radical change set in a Ruined Earth; the sequence comprises Walk to the End of the World (1974), Motherlines (1978), both assembled as ...
Love War, The
Made-for-tv film (1970). Paramount/ABC-TV. Directed by George McCowan. Written by Guerdon Trueblood, David Kidd. Cast includes Harry Basch, Lloyd Bridges, Angie Dickinson and Dan Travanti. 74 minutes. Colour. / Six Aliens from two warring planets arrive on Earth for a duel to the death to decide which of those planets is the victor. Four are eliminated; one survivor (Bridges) opts to try to stop the fight, remain on Earth, merge with the natives, and have a ...
Devolution
Sf is usually an optimistic genre, and stories of Evolution on the whole envisage humanity as slowly progressing to higher states. However, a persistent pessimistic note in Genre SF generally, and to a degree in mainstream sf too, has been to imagine the opposite, the devolution or degeneration of mankind. The note was sounded most famously in H G Wells's The Time Machine (1895), in which ...
Wedlake, G E C
(1897-1978) UK playwright and author who is of some sf interest for The Wrecking Ray (1935), the eponymous Ray apparently attacking via radio waves. [JC/SH]
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 ...