SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Thursday 19 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.
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Antiheroes
Although the name suggests a simple opposition to Heroes, antiheroes are not synonymous with Villains. They range from merely unsympathetic protagonists whose downfall or comeuppance provides satisfaction – typically at slick short story length – to figures of some stature and personal attraction who are dark complements of heroes. Satan is often viewed in genre terms as the antihero counterpart of God (see ...
Ikeda Noriaki
(1955- ) Japanese author and producer, sometimes operating under the working name Kenshō Ikeda, an alternate reading of the characters that spell his name. A graduate in Literature from Komazawa University, he first gained attention as a critic and chronicler of Japan's distinctive Tokusatsu genre, in which rubber monsters and super-sized heroes duel in the streets of a model Tokyo. His magazine column "SF Hero ...
Rios, Julia
(? - ) US writer and editor much involved in various podcasts starting with Outer Alliance which she hosted from 2010 to 2015. As well as currently co-hosting The Skiffy and Fanty Show podcast she has acted as a narrator for this and other online magazines. Between 2012 and 2015 she was senior fiction editor at Strange Horizons; from 2014 the poetry and reprints editor for the equally highly-regarded ...
Half-Life
Videogame (1998). Valve. Platforms: Win (1998); rev PS2 (2001). / Half-Life is a First Person Shooter, notable for its depth of narrative immersion (see Game Design). It was the first FPS in which a storyline was presented without the use of non-interactive scenes interposed between levels set in different locations. ...
Thomas, Hugh
(1931-2017) UK historian and author, best known for such studies as The Spanish Civil War (1961; rev 1977). Of his fiction, which came early in his career, his second novel, The Oxygen Age (1958), is of sf interest. In the very Near Future, the British government is convinced by Lord Mortlake, an industrialist and fraudster, that he is responsible for the Invention of the oxygen bomb, and that with ...
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 ...