SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Tuesday 17 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.
Site updated on 16 February 2026
Sponsor of the day: Andy Richards of Cold Tonnage Books
Photo Fiends
US review-size Cinema/Television Fanzine. Publisher: Tim Paxton as Kronos Productions. No editor named. Three numbered, undated issues, 1978. / This short-lived fanzine, of better quality than many such publications, offered material on such television programmes as The Outer Limits (1963-1965) and Space: 1999 ...
Mediascene
Tabloid-size Media Magazine. Publisher: James Steranko as Supergraphics Publications. Editor: Steranko. 41 issues, 1972 to 1979. / While not an sf or fantasy Media Magazine per se, this title from Comics artist and author Steranko included a good deal of material on these genres. Starting life as Comixscene, it became Mediascene with issue ...
Space Flight
Flight into space is the classic theme in sf. The lunar romances of Francis Godwin, Cyrano de Bergerac et al. are the works most commonly and readily identified as Proto SF. In modern times, as Genre SF spilled out of print into the Cinema, Radio and Television, ...
Burke, Ralph
Pseudonym used for magazine stories 1956-1958, primarily by Robert Silverberg alone, but three times in collaboration with Randall Garrett. [JC/DRL]
Laser Books
Canadian sf imprint initiated in 1975 by Harlequin Books, the US publisher of Mills & Boon romances, under the editorship of Roger Elwood. The books were restricted to a formula which specified a male protagonist, an upbeat ending, no sex or atheism, and a minimum of long words. All Laser Book covers were the work of Frank Kelly Freas. The series was suspended early in 1977 after fifty-seven books had appeared. The Laser ...
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 ...