SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Monday 19 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 14 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 ...
Lichtenberger, André
(1870-1940) French editor, politician and author. Of his several works of fantasy or sf, Les Centaures, roman fantastique (Paris: Calman-Lévy, 1904) and Pickles, ou récits à la mode anglaise ["Pickles; Or, Stories in the English Style"] (coll 1923), have been assembled as The Centaurs and Other Stories (omni trans Brian Stableford 2013). The title novel is a prehistoric fantasy about the ...
Stannard, Russell
(1931- ) UK physicist and author, much of whose nonfiction attempts to reconcile modern science and Religion. He is of sf interest for the Uncle Albert series of didactic tales for relatively young readers beginning with The Time and Space of Uncle Albert (1989). The structure of the sequence – children present Uncle Albert with questions, which he answers through guided tours of the physical universe – ...
Jasieński, Bruno
Pseudonym of Polish author and polemicist Wiktor Zysman (1901-1938), a founder of Polish Futurism. Little of his work is of sf interest – even when a liberal interpretation is laid upon the cognate relationship between certain kinds of post-World War One Modernism and Fantastika – except for one novel, "Je Brûle Paris" (1928 L'Humanité; trans Soren A Gauger and Marcin Piekoszewski as ...
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 ...