SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Saturday 8 August 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 3 August 2026
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Kaiju
Though the Japanese word kaijū literally means "strange beast", it is usually translated as Monster and has become synonymous with Japanese Monster Movies and similar tales told on Television – also Anime and Manga – that feature giant monsters as the main character, traditionally wrecking ...
Doyle, Richard
(1948-2017) UK author whose Near Future Disaster tale, Deluge (1976), drowns London in time-honoured fashion, as does Flood (2002), although the two are different stories based around the identical premise of storms causing a tidal surge that wrecks the east coast and overwhelms the London Barrier. [JC/SH]
Taffrail
Pseudonym of UK naval officer and author Henry Taprell Dorling (1883-1968), in the UK navy from 1897 through World War One, retiring in 1929; he served again during World War Two. He began his prolific career as an author with All About Ships: A Book for Boys (1912), almost all his work being nonfantastic stories of the sea, and came to some attention late in life when it was suggested that his early novel, ...
Roguelike
Roguelikes or Rogue-likes are a type of Computer Role Playing Game or CRPG with a number of common gameplay features. The player must move their character, or party of characters through a dungeon or map with a series of levels, fighting Monsters of increasing difficulty. Most typically, the player is subject to "permadeath"; if a character or member of a party dies, then they are lost permanently. If all characters ...
LeVay, Simon
(1943- ) UK author of Albrick's Gold (1998), an sf Satire in which a "cure" for homosexual Sex impulses is introduced by a homophobe. [JC]
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 ...