SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Friday 10 October 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 6 October 2025
Sponsor of the day: Glasgow 2024 (Worldcon)
A for Andromeda
UK tv serial (1961). A BBC TV production. Produced by Michael Hayes, Norman Jones, written John Elliot from a storyline by Fred Hoyle. Cast includes Julie Christie, Peter Halliday, Esmond Knight, Mary Morris, Patricia Neale, John Nettleton and Frank Windsor. Seven episodes, the first six at 45 minutes, the last 50 minutes. Black and white. / In the then Near Future of 1970, a radio signal ...
Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award
A juried life achievement Award set up in memory of Cordwainer Smith by the Cordwainer Smith Foundation, intended to honour notable sf and fantasy authors who in the view of the judging panel either did not receive in their active period or no longer receive as much attention as they deserve. It was first presented to Olaf Stapledon at the 2001 Worldcon, and is now ...
Laporta, Mark
(? - ) US author whose first works were for Young Adult readers, beginning with the Changing Hearts of Ixdahan Daherek sequence, whose eponymous protagonist in the first volume Heart of Earth (2015) finds himself exiled from his home planet – for acts of arrogance and stupidity – and forced to live on Earth as a teenager. Fortunately, he fends of an Invasion by ...
Kiwerski, Krzysztof
(1948- ) Polish director, writer, animator and painter. After studying at the High School of Fine Arts in Poznań, he went on to graduate from Krakow's Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts Faculty of Painting in 1973. Kiwerski would become head of the Academy's Animation Art Studio, as well as a Professor of Fine Arts in its Faculty of Graphic Arts. He also worked for the Animated Film Studio ("Studio Filmów Animowanych") in Krakow, for ...
Murray, Alfred
(? -? ) UK author of The Old French Professor; Or, the Tragedy of the Cafe Bertin (1907) whose eponym, something of a Mad Scientist, hopes to apply his Invention, a Weapon that uses radio waves to wreak destruction, in the imposition of world peace; unfortunately, he destroys a restaurant, and himself, first. [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 ...