SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Thursday 17 July 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 16 July 2025
Sponsor of the day: Andy Richards of Cold Tonnage Books
Williams, Tess
(1954-2025) UK-born teacher, editor and author, in Australia for many years, there receiving a degree in literature from Curtin University and an MA in creative writing from the University of Western Australia. She began publishing work of genre interest with "The Padwan Affair" in She's Fantastical (anth 1995) edited by Judith Raphael Buckrich and Lucy Sussex. Of sf interest are two novels: Map of Power (1996), set mostly in a ...
Atomic Platters
The name – coined by Bill Geerhart at the Conelrad website [see links below] – for a short-lived sub-genre of 1940s and 1950s pop music concerned with an atomic World War Three and its aftermath (see Holocaust). Many, though not all, of the artists and songs that might be so classified fell into later obscurity, but this was in its day a fairly lively aural manifestation of the fascinations of ...
Wilson, Peter Lamborn
(1945-2022) US anarchist author and poet who also wrote as by Hakim or (for political essays) Hakim Bey. He was controversial for occasional defences of paedophilia; his first novel of genre interest, Crowstone (1983) as by Hakim, is described on the cover as "A sword and sorcery boy-love tale" (see Sword and Sorcery). As Wilson he wrote some short sf for Interzone, ...
Allingham, H J
(1867-1936) UK editor and author, father of Margery Allingham, who wrote stories for boys, sometimes as by Ralph Rollington; his Young Adult sf novel, The Robot Man: Amazing Tale of Peril Abroad (6 July-7 September 1929 Gem Magazine; 1931 chap), about a Mad Scientist who creates a giant Robot in the Amazon, is of moderate interest. ...
Crater Lake Monster, The
Film (1977). Crown International Pictures. Produced by William R Stromberg. Directed by Stromberg. Dinosaur animation by David Allen and Jim Danforth (uncredited). Written by Stromberg and Richard Cardella from their original story. Cast includes Richard Cardells, Bob Hyman, Glen Roberts, Sonny Shepard and Mark Siegel. 85 minutes. Colour. / Near Crater Lake, California (not the implied Crater Lake, Oregon) a pair of young college students show Scientist ...
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 ...