SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Sunday 10 May 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 4 May 2026
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Conway, Gerard F
(1952-2026) US author informally known as Gerry Conway who began his career in Comics, writing some non-fantastic scripts for Marvel Comics, and editing the short-lived 1973 weird fiction magazine The Haunt of Horror and writing for the 1973-1975 anthology Comic Worlds Unknown. He also worked extensively for ...
Earnshaw, Brian
(1929-2014) UK teacher and author of the fine chase thriller And Mistress Pursuing (1966); his complex sf thriller, Planet in the Eye of Time (1968), encompasses, via Time Travel, the period of the crucifixion (see Christ; Religion) and addresses the problems of a dying Galaxy. / Earnshaw's later work within the genre was all for children (see ...
Balmanno, Robert
(1951- ) US librarian and author of the Blessings of Gaia series beginning with September Snow (2006), set initially in a Near Future California ravaged by Climate Change, and under the sway of a Religion that extols Gaia but which has been corrupted. This faith now shapes a totalitarian ...
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
Film (1989). Paramount. Directed by William Shatner. Written by David Loughery from a story by Shatner, Harve Bennett, Loughery. Cast includes the lead players from the Star Trek television series, along with Laurence Luckinbill. 107 minutes. Colour. / A visibly middle-aged, overweight crew enact a tepid melodrama in which the Enterprise is hijacked by a charismatic Vulcan healer, Sybok (Luckinbill), in search of ...
Layzell, Bob
(1940-2026) UK artist who drew some inspiration from the paintings of Chris Foss and Bruce Pennington, and began to publish artwork of genre interest in Science Fiction Monthly for September 1974 as by Merlin (painting signed "Merlin 70", presumably created in 1970). His impressively detailed Hard SF covers soon began to appear on sf titles from various UK ...
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 ...