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: The League of Fan Funds
Zimmerman, Howard
(? - ) US editor of Starlog magazine 1981-1982, and of two relevant collaborative Anthologies, The Bank Street Book of Science Fiction (anth 1989) and The Bank Street Book of Fantasy (1989), both with Barbara Brenner, Martin H Greenberg (anonymously) and Seymour Reit. The potentially useful ...
Scientists
Scientists in pre-twentieth-century sf often exhibited symptoms of social maladjustment, sometimes to the point of insanity; they were characteristically obsessive and antisocial. Some scientists were quasidiabolical figures, like Coppelius in E T A Hoffmann's "Der Sandmann" ["The Sandman"] (comprising volume one of Nachtstücke, 1816) or Mary Shelley's eponymous ...
Adventure in the Center of the Earth
Mexican film (1965). Producciones Sotomayor. Original title Aventura al Centro de la Tierra. Directed by Alfredo B Crevenna. Written by José María Fernández Unsáin. Cast includes Carlos Cortés, Columba Domínguez, Kitty de Hoyos, José Elías Moreno, David Reynoso and Javier Solís. 79 minutes. Black and white. / Opening with a brief history of zoology since Aristotle, we are informed that ...
Kamin, Nick
Pseudonym of US author Robert John Antonick (1939-2011), whose sf novels Earthrim (1969 dos), a heavily plotted melodrama set on a tyrannized Earth, and The Herod Men (1971), the latter a Near Future thriller, both feature adventure plots somewhat awkwardly presented. [JC]
Supervillains
Supervillains (see Villains) were an inevitable consequence of the emergence of Superheroes in Comics and other media, since it quickly became apparent that the pioneering superhero Superman (see DC Comics) and his similarly powerful counterparts could as a rule encounter no meaningful opposition from ordinary criminals to create ...
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 ...