SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Tuesday 20 May 2025
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 May 2025
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Frankenstein Monster
The term is in general use, not only in sf Terminology but in common parlance, to mean a Monster that ultimately turns and rends its irresponsible creator. Readers of sf are aware that in Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley original novel, Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus (1811; rev 1831), Frankenstein was the name of the creator and not of the monster; in popular ...
Wu, Frank
(1964- ) American artist and author, although he primarily earns his living by applying knowledge garnered from his PhD in bacterial genetics to the field of patent law. As a writer, Wu has mostly published short satirical pieces, some in the Journal of Irreproducible Results, although "Worlds in Collusion: A Planetary Romance" (in Visual Journeys, anth 2007, ed Eric Reynolds) attempts to strike a more serious note in describing an unusual romance. ...
Dasgupta, Rana
(1971- ) UK-born author now resident in India whose first book, Tokyo Cancelled (coll of linked stories 2005), presents a series of Club Story tales told by thirteen passengers stranded overnight in an airport because snow has forced the cancellation of their flight to Tokyo. The tales themselves – as befit narratives told by displaced citizens of the contemporary world – are exceedingly various, running from ...
Penguindrum
Japanese animated tv series (2011); original title Mawaru Penguindrum; vt Mawaru Pingudoramu. Brain's Base. Directed by Kunihiko Ikuhara. Written by Takayo Ikami and Kunihiko Ikuhara. Voice cast includes Miho Arakawa, Ryōhei Kimura, Subaru Kimura, Yutaka Koizumi and Marie Miyake. 24 25-minute episodes. Colour. / Himari Takakura (Arakawa) dies shortly after collapsing at an aquarium. As her brothers Shoma (R Kimura) and Kanba (S Kimura) ...
Calhoun, Kenneth
(? - ) US academic and author whose first novel, Black Moon (2014), combines, with some Equipoisal grasp, a Near Future Zombie apocalypse setting in an afflicted America, with an almost metafictional contemplation of the effects of sleep deprivation on human beings. The protagonist – one of the few who retains the capacity to sleep after an event ...
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 ...