SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Monday 15 December 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 11 December 2025
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Varley, John
(1947-2025) US author who began to publish work of genre interest with "Picnic on Nearside" in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction for August 1974, and who was soon thought to be the most significant new sf writer of the late 1970s. He was fresh, he was complex, he understood the imaginative implications of transformative developments like cloning (see Clones) and Identity Transfer, many of ...
Shaver, Richard S
(1907-1975) US author, author of some sf stories (some under the House Names Paul Lohrman and Frank Patton) but now remembered almost exclusively for his hoax-like sequence of Shaver Mystery stories, presented as based on fact, published in Raymond A Palmer's Amazing Stories 1945-1947, beginning with "I Remember Lemuria" in ...
Vaughan, Thomas Hunter
(? -? ) UK author, seemingly active only during the teens of the twentieth century; of some sf interest is The Gates of the Past (1911), a tale of Reincarnation in which Ancient Egyptians manifest themselves in London under the sway of an occult psychologist/magus named Ramon Cafara. [JC]
Tomorrow [fanzine]
UK Fanzine edited and published by Douglas W F Mayer for the Leeds, Yorkshire, Science Fiction Association, of which Tomorrow was the official organ. Seven issues, Spring 1937 to Autumn 1938; #1 to #4 (Winter 1938) duplicated half-quarto (5 x 8 in); thereafter lithographed US quarto (8½ x 11 in). Quarterly. / The change of format after issue #4 coincided with the ...
Dayton, Arwen Elys
(1974- ) US author of a romance sf tale, Sovereign's Gold (2000), and of Resurrection (2001), in which two pairs of competing Aliens attempt to recover a forgotten Technology left behind by one of their races on Earth 3000 years earlier. Love interests also flourish. Seeker (2015) is the first book in a Young Adult fantasy trilogy. [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 ...