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Tuesday 17 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 16 February 2026
Sponsor of the day: Andy Richards of Cold Tonnage Books
Gross, Philip
(1952- ) UK poet – whose first collection, Familiars (coll 1983 chap), was well received – and author, mostly for Young Adult audiences, beginning with The Song of Gail and Fludd (1991), a surreal rite of passage tale whose two protagonists, questing aimlessly from venue to venue as though traversing an endless Archipelago, encounter exemplary fantasy and sf modes of ...
Lohrman, Paul
House Name used on the Ziff-Davis magazines by Richard Shaver, Paul W Fairman and perhaps others on seven stories 1950-1953. "The World of the Lost" (March 1950 Fantastic Adventures) has been definitely attributed to Shaver. [PN] links / ...
Eloy
German prog-rock band, founded in 1969 by guitarist, singer and songwriter Frank Bornemann (1952- ); named after the Eloi of H G Wells's Time Machine (the track "Eloy" on the band's first album [Eloy, 1971], sings their praises). It is not clear why Bornemann got the spelling wrong, or why he has persisted with it through decades of English-language recording. Early albums often contain, alongside a number of more ...
Illustration
Note: because both the original entry written by Brian W Aldiss for the 1979 First Edition, and the continuation written by Peter Nicholls for the 1993 Second Edition, can be regarded as interpretative essays on sf art by important critics as well as historical surveys, the decision has been made to retain them in their original form, and to add a third essay covering more recent developments. [GW] 1. From the Beginnings ...
Parry, David MacLean
(1852-1915) US businessman and author whose anti-socialist Dystopia, The Scarlet Empire (1906), is clearly intended to counter Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward (1888). A young socialist American thinks to commit Suicide by jumping into the sea, but awakens in a nightmarish Atlantis, a Lost World ...
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 ...