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Tuesday 3 November 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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Slick
A term that emerged in the 1930s, originally as "slick-paper magazine" to distinguish what many regarded as the quality magazines from the Pulps. The slicks were also known as the "heavies" or "glossies", because they were printed on coated stock to allow better reproduction of photographs, as much for advertisements as for the editorial content, which made each individual issue considerably heavier than a pulp. The "glossies" had been around for far longer than the ...
Tractor Beam
Term coined by E E Smith in Spacehounds of IPC (July-September 1931 Amazing; 1947) for the Force-Field equivalent of a rope and grappling iron, used to seize and immobilize or haul in objects encountered in space – typically, mineral ores and Spaceships which may be hostile, damaged or simply docking. The tractor beam has been widely adopted by sf ...
Gonzales, Laurence
(1947- ) US author, mostly of nonfiction, including Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why (2003). He is of sf interest for Lucy (2010), an Apes as Human tale whose protagonist discovers after he has adopted the child of a dead colleague in Africa that she is the result of a Eugenic experiment in Genetic Engineering, and that she is ...
Apostolides, Alex
(1923-2005) US archaeologist, museum curator, journalist and author who began to publish sf with "Progress Report" (July 1953 If) and "Solution Delayed" (July 1953 Astounding), both written with Mark Clifton. He also collaborated with Clifton (whom see for details) on two early stories in the Bossy series and the first story only of Clifton's Ralph Kennedy sequence. Apostolides' one solo story is ...
Aguilera, Juan Miguel
(1960- ) Spanish illustrator, industrial designer by profession, and author. He is considered one of the best Spanish sf writers. He has published thirteen novels, half of them in collaboration with other authors; three novellas in collaboration; and fifteen or so short stories. His works convey like few others the sf Sense of Wonder. / His first story was "Sangrando correctamente" ["Bleeding Correctly"] ...
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 ...