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Wednesday 11 February 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 February 2026
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Carver, Jeffrey A
(1949-2026) US author who began publishing sf with "... Of No Return" in Fiction Magazine for 1974. His first novel, Seas of Ernathe (1976), which serves as an introduction to the loose Star Rigger sequence of Space Operas, showed early signs of a love of plot and thematic complexity which would take him some time, and several novels, to control. The continuation, Star Rigger's Way (1978), for instance, combines quest ...
Franklin, Jay
Pseudonym of John Franklin Carter (1897-1967). a journalist who did intelligence work for the American government in World War Two, and the author of several nonfiction books on American political figures as well as two sf novels, Champagne Charlie (1950), a mild Near Future political Satire, and The Rat Race (8 March-5 April 1947 Collier's Weekly; rev 1950), about a ...
Cummings, M A
Working name of Mona A Cummings (1914-1999), US author of romances as Monette Cummings, and of short stories in various genres, her work of genre interest beginning with "The Brides of Ool" in Planet Stories in 1955. Her collection is Exile and Other Tales of Fantasy (coll 1968), which contains some Planetary Romances. [JC]
Neufeld, John
(1938-2021) US author, mostly for Young Adult readers, beginning with Edgar Allan (1968). He is of sf interest for Sleep, Two, Three, Four! (1971), a highly politicized Near Future Dystopia dominated by "Nixon and Company", and featuring the attempts of a group of teenagers to transcend their conditioning – the model of George ...
Peterson, Lorin
(? - ) US author of Ma Windsor (1983), a Near Future Satire on American mores and politics whose protagonist, being elected the first female President of the United States, causes disarray by making the wealthy ineligible to claim social security, reducing the nuclear Weapons stockpile, and bringing all the soldiers home from their international redoubts. ...
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 ...