SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Thursday 16 July 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 14 July 2026
Sponsor of the day: Andy Richards of Cold Tonnage Books
Near Dark
Film (1987). F/M and Near Dark Joint Venture. Directed by Kathryn Bigelow. Written by Kathryn Bigelow and Eric Red. Cast includes Jenette Goldstein, Lance Henriksen, Joshua John Miller, Adrian Pasdar, Bill Paxton, Tim Thomerson and Jenny Wright. 94 minutes. Colour. / In a small town at night in the deepest Oklahoma, young Caleb Colton (Pasdar) picks up the extremely attractive Mae (Wright), amiably expecting sex; but she is undead and bites his neck, turning him into a starter ...
EC Comics
Company founded in 1945 by M C Gaines (1896-1947), creator of the format of the modern Comic book and original partner in the company that became DC Comics. The initials stood for both Educational and, later, Entertaining Comics. After Gaines's death the company passed to his son, William M Gaines (1922-1992), who revamped the line to his own taste. Educational Comics was wound down and Entertaining Comics was transformed into a line of ...
Walker, Hugh
Pseudonym of Austrian author Hubert Straßl (1941- ), whose Magira sequence – featuring a character who first creates a Wargame and then becomes absorbed within it – begins with Reiter der Finsternis (1975; trans Christine Priest as War-Gamers' World 1978), Das Heer der Finsternis (1975; trans Christine Priest as Army of Darkness 1979), Boten der Finsternis ...
Sanders, Scott Russell
(1945- ) US teacher and author who began publishing work of genre interest with "Touch the Earth" for Edges (anth 1980) edited by Ursula K Le Guin; most of his work has been nonfiction, much of comprising nature studies set in America. His first novel, Terrarium (1985), is set in a Near Future America whose human population has retreated from the polluted world into domed ...
Bleiler, Everett F
(1920-2010) US editor, bibliographer and critic who for many years remained best known as the compiler of The Checklist of Fantastic Literature: A Bibliography of Fantasy, Weird and Science Fiction Books Published in the English Language (1948; rev vt The Checklist of Science-Fiction and Supernatural Fiction 1978), which Shasta Publishers was founded to produce. The Checklist, which lists 5000 books from the period 1800-1948, ...
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 ...