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Tuesday 20 January 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 19 January 2026
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von Däniken, Erich
(1935-2026) Swiss author of a series of purportedly nonfiction books, beginning with Erinnerungen an die Zukunft (1968; trans Michael Heron as Chariots of the Gods? 1969), which, based on a mass of often suspect and internally inconsistent data, argues that the Earth was visited by at least one Alien spacefaring race before and at the dawn of historical time; thus, for example, the Great Pyramid of ...
Adams, Scott
(1957-2026) US author and cartoonist best known for the Dilbert strip published from 1989, which when at its best superbly (in terms of concept and accuracy of Satire rather than quality of drawing) satirized contemporary office life and corporate incompetence. As with most ambitious modern comic strips, it segues frequently into sf and fantasy tropes – such as Robot office workers, wish-fulfilling ...
Trow, William Clark
(1894-1982) US educational psychologist whose primary focus on the use of Psychology to address the nature of forma learning is reflected in Gulliver's Visit to Walden III: A Report on the Values in Education (1976), which couched as Gulliver's visit to a later version of the Utopia promulgated in B F Skinner's Walden Two (1948). [JC]
Pugh, Edwin
(1874-1930) UK journalist and author whose first book, the nonfantastic A Street in Suburbia (coll 1895), was his most successful; but his realism was sentimentalized and his stories tended to cruel melodrama. The Rogue's Paradise: an Extravaganza (1898) with Charles Gleig is set in an imaginary South American country. Pugh is of direct sf interest for a late tale, The Great Unborn: A Dream of To-morrow (1918), a ...
du Maurier, Guy
(1865-1915) UK soldier and author of An Englishman's Home: A Play in Three Acts (performed 27 January 1909 Wyndham Theatre, London; 1909 chap) as by A Patriot, a Future War drama in which England defends itself from Invasion; the short film England Invaded (1909) directed by Leo Stormont may have been based without authorization on this play. Du Maurier was the son of George ...
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 ...