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Saturday 21 June 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 16 June 2025
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Forsyth, Frederick
(1938-2025) UK author who gained fame with his first novel, The Day of the Jackal (1971), and whose books are generally political thrillers. The Shepherd (1975 chap), however, is a sentimental Timeslip or ghost fantasy in which a pilot on Christmas Eve 1957 is saved from crashing by a World War Two pilot in an antique bomber: pilot and plane had been shot down on the Christmas Eve of 1943. ...
Volars, C G
(? - ) US author of the Young Adult Static Over Space sequence beginning with Static Over Space: Gravity and Lies (2022), whose young protagonist, an aspirational Superhero whose Superpower is the ability to fly, is abducted by entrepreneurial Aliens who take him off-planet as an entertainer. His adventures ...
Foss, Chris
(1946- ) Working name of British artist Christopher F Foss. Foss studied architecture at Cambridge University, and he has worked in sf Illustration since 1970, primarily as a cover artist; he uses brush and airbrush to excellent effect. Foss's smooth, representational style, demonstrated on hundreds of covers, spearheaded a revolution in British sf paperback design in the 1970s, and the artist's success inspired many imitators, creating ...
Lawrence, James
(1773-1840) UK utopian thinker and author, mostly resident in the Continent, who had for several years been expounding the proto-Feminist arguments of his Utopia, The Empire of the Nairs: Or, the Rights of Women: An Utopian Romance in Twelve Books (1811 4vols), beginning with an essay (German title not known) on "The Nair System of Gallantry and Inheritance" (1793 Deutsche Merkur). A version of the novel (considerably ...
Park, Severna
Pseudonym of US author Suzanne Feldman (1958- ), whose sf conveys without resorting to formal arguments a sustained Feminist apprehension of the world, within the frame of complex Space Opera and Planetary Romances narratives, though some clarity is sacrificed in the oblique conveying of Gender issues through ornate, indeed operatic manipulations ...
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 ...