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Sunday 22 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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Forsyth, Frederick
(1938-2025) UK author who gained fame with his first novel, The Day of the Jackal (1971), and whose books are generally political thrillers. The Shepherd (1975 chap), however, is a sentimental Timeslip or ghost fantasy in which a pilot on Christmas Eve 1957 is saved from crashing by a World War Two pilot in an antique bomber: pilot and plane had been shot down on the Christmas Eve of 1943. ...
Blot, Thomas
Pseudonym of US author William Simpson (1828-1910). In his sf novel The Man from Mars: His Morals, Politics and Religion (1891) the eponymous telepathic traveller tells of his Utopian world. Unfortunately – if his desire was to communicate widely – the human he contacts is a hermit. [JC]
Science Fiction Age
US Slick letter-size magazine, saddle-stapled, published bimonthly by Sovereign Media, Herndon, Virginia, 46 issues, November 1992 to May 2000. Publisher Mark Hintz, edited by Scott Edelman. A bold and extremely welcome magazine that strove to achieve what many had tried before and failed, being a genuine Slick science fiction magazine. Science Fiction Age was the most impressive professional sf ...
Spectrum SF
UK magazine, in trade paperback format. Nine numbered issues published irregularly from February 2000 to November 2002. Edited and published by Paul Fraser throughout its life, from Aberdeen #1-#4 and from Glasgow thereafter. Spectrum SF had high production standards but never made a profit, as noted in the editorial of issue #9, which announced that the schedule would henceforth be "occasional"; no further issues appeared. Cover designs for #1-#5 were predominantly plain white; from #6, ...
Salonen, Esa-Pekka
(1958- ) Finnish classical musician and composer. Though better known as an orchestral conductor, Salonen has composed a number of sf-influenced works, amongst them ... auf den ersten blick und ohne zu wissen ... ["... at first sight and without knowing ..."] (1980) based on the work of Franz Kafka (from whose Der Prozess [1925; trans as The Trial 1937 UK] its title is quoted), and most notably ...
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 ...