SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Tuesday 21 April 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 20 April 2026
Sponsor of the day: John Howard
Watson, Ian
(1943-2026) UK teacher and author who lectured in English in Tanzania (1965-1967) and Tokyo (1967-1970) before beginning to publish sf with "Roof Garden Under Saturn" for New Worlds in 1969; he then taught Future Studies for six years at Birmingham Polytechnic, taking there one of the first academic courses in sf in the UK; he became a full-time writer in 1976, publishing around 200 short stories since 1969 at a gradually increasing tempo and with visibly ...
Super Science Stories
1. US Pulp magazine which ran in two series for a total of 31 issues. Both series were run by Popular Publications, New York, the first under their imprint Fictioneers, Inc, which allowed them to pay cheaper word rates: 16 issues March 1940 to May 1943, with three consecutive 1941 issues (March, May and August) titled Super Science Novels; edited by Frederik Pohl until August 1941, then Ejler ...
Unknown
US magazine, 39 issues, March 1939 to October 1943, published by Street & Smith, edited by John W Campbell Jr; pulp-size March 1939 to August 1941, letter-size October 1941 to April 1943, then back to pulp-size to October 1943; monthly March 1939 to December 1940, then bimonthly. / The fantasy companion to Astounding Science-Fiction, Unknown was one of the most sophisticated of ...
Kimball, Janus
Pseudonym used by US author, journalist and media executive Richard Hack (1951- ) for Scanners II: The New Order (1991), which is Tied to the film Scanners II: The New Order (1990); see Scanners. Most of Hack's work is non-genre and published under his own name. [JC/DRL]
Hanshew, Mary E
(1852-1927) US-born author – later in the UK – of some detective thrillers including The Frozen Flame (April-July Short Stories as "The Riddle of the Frozen Flame"; 1920; vt The Riddle of the Frozen Flame 1920) with her husband T W Hanshew, in the Riddle/Hamilton Cleek sequence of thrillers, almost entirely without fantastic content (but see her husband's for further details of the Hamilton Cleek ...
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 ...