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Thursday 16 July 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 14 July 2026
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Oram, John
Working name of Welsh author John Oram Thomas (1906-1992) for his two Ties in the Man from U.N.C.L.E. Television sequence (see The Man from U.N.C.L.E.), The Copenhagen Affair (1965) and The Stone-Cold Dead in the Market Affair (1966), the latter – unusually for this series – being set in Wales. [JC]
Stapledon, Olaf
(1886-1950) UK author and philosopher, born in the Wirral peninsula near Liverpool, where he spent the greater part of his life. In Waking World (1934) he admitted that he lived "chiefly on dividends and other ill-gotten gains". The name Olaf does not indicate foreign antecedents: his parents had been reading Carlyle's The Early Kings of Norway (coll 1875) when he was born. After studying at Balliol College, Oxford, he worked for a short period without enthusiasm in ...
Solar System
This encyclopedia deals with sf about our Solar System under the following headwords, moving conventionally outward from the Sun (see also Stars for a more general treatment of suns). There are individual entries for Mercury, Venus, the Moon but not the Earth itself – though links to a great many relevant entries are assembled under a cross-reference ...
Davitt, Deborah L
(1974- ) US teacher, poet and author, initially of the Saga of Edda-Earth beginning with The Valkyrie (2014) (series not listed below). Her poetry has been assembled in The Gates of Never (coll, 2019) and elsewhere. She is of specific sf interest for a novella, The Carrying Capacity of Paradise (2024 chap), in which a tycoon is murdered on his own refuge Asteroid. [JC]
Tolstaya, Tatyana
(1951- ) Russian broadcaster, journalist and author, grand-daughter of Alexei Tolstoy; she should not be confused with Tatyana Sukhotina-Tolstaya (1864-1950), daughter of Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910); Tolstaya herself is Leo's great-grandniece. She is of sf interest for her first novel, Kys' (2000; trans Jamey Gambrell as The Slynx 2003), a fantasticated Utopia set in a ...
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 ...