SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Tuesday 10 March 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 9 March 2026
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Triffid
Well-known Term denoting the ambulant, Poison-stinging, vegetable Monsters which harass the mostly blinded remnants of humanity in John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids (6 January-3 February 1951 Collier's Weekly; as "Revolt of the Triffids"; 1951; rev 1951; orig version vt Revolt of the Triffids ...
Reeve, Philip
(1966- ) UK illustrator from 1996, mostly of picture books for younger readers, and author of Young Adult fiction, most prominently to date the Mortal Engines series, the main sequence of which, the Hungry Cities Chronicles, comprises Mortal Engines (2001), Predator's Gold (2003), Infernal Devices (2005) and A Darkling Plain (2006). The tightly composed series is set in ...
Shannon, John C
(? -? ) UK author of some sf interest for "The Dream of Jacques, the Anarchist" (7 April 1894 Walsall Advertiser as by Nemo), a Future War vision involving advanced Airships and other newly developed Weapons. The tale was collected, along with some fantasies and weird fiction, in Who Shall Condemn? and Other Stories (coll 1894). Shannon's second ...
Outlanders
Japanese Original Video Animation (OVA) (1986). Tatsunoko Production. Based on the Manga by Johji Manabe. Directed by Katsuhisa Yamada. Written by Kenji Terada and Sukehiro Tomita. Voice cast includes Fumi Hirano, Mitsuo Iwata, Miko Terashima, Takashi Toyama, Kenji Utsumi and Mari Yokoo. 48 minutes. Colour. / The Santovasku Galactic Empire, ruled by Emperor Quevas (Toyama), plans to conquer Earth ...
John W Campbell Award
Award for the best new sf or fantasy author, selected by votes of sf fans and invariably presented at the Worldcon as part of the Hugo ceremony. There is a two-year eligibility period: an author first published in 2000 would be eligible for the 2001 or 2002 award but not thereafter. Sponsored by Condé-Nast, publishers of Analog, the John W Campbell Award was instituted in 1972 in tribute to John W ...
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 ...