SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Thursday 13 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.
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Crowley, John
(1942-2026) US teacher and author who also worked in documentary films and television for some time beginning in 1966. His sf novels have had a considerable impact on the field, and his fantasies established him as a figure whose work courteously but deeply stretched the boundaries of genre literature. / His first novel, The Deep (1975), is set on a flat discworld resting on a pillar that extends beyond measurement into the circumambient galactic Deep, in which very few stars ...
In Time
Film (2011). Regency Enterprises presents a New Regency/Strike Entertainment production. Written and directed by Andrew Niccol. Cast includes Matt Bomer, Johnny Galecki, Vincent Kartheiser, Cillian Murphy, Alex Pettyfer, Amanda Seyfried, Justin Timberlake and Olivia Wilde. 109 minutes. Colour. / In a future where humans are Genetically Engineered to stop ageing at 25 but must purchase additional lifespan ...
Tarnacre, Robert
Pseudonym of UK author Robert Cartmell (1877-? ) in whose Lost Race tale, Beyond the Swamps (1929), a British patrol boat explores an unknown backwater, upstream from which an intact ancient Roman civilization discovered, and is soon brought to heel under the civilizing influence of Empire discipline. [JC]
Dudgeon, Robert Ellis
(1820-1904) Scottish homeopathic doctor – editor of the British Journal of Homeopathy from 1846 to 1884 – and author of the Utopian novel Colymbia (1873), published anonymously. Written in a spirit of competition with Erewhon (1872; rev 1903) by Samuel Butler, who was Dudgeon's patient, it is set on an equatorial Archipelago in the Pacific and ...
Solar Wind
This scientific term has found much favour in sf Terminology. The stars constantly emit highly energetic particles as well as, of course, light, which is itself composed of tiny particles, photons (although here the word "particle" has a slightly different meaning). These particles exert a gentle outward pressure (which is why the tail of a Comet always points away from the Sun). A low-mass ...
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 ...