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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 ...
Robertson, Mike
(? - ) US author of sf interest exclusively for Ties to the de facto Shared World of H Beam Piper's Terro-Human Future History: Federation, specifically the novel Space Viking (November 1962-June 1963 Analog; 1963). Robertson's linked Space Operas, all written in collaboration with ...
Innes, Michael
Pseudonym used by Scots author and academic J I M Stewart (1906-1994) for his many detective and thriller novels published from 1936 to 1986, often featuring series character John Appleby in various official roles from detective-inspector to Sir John Appleby, Commissioner of Metropolitan Police, and onward through a long, active retirement. Though often fantastical and donnishly whimsical, these tales normally keep sf devices at arm's length or play with them only speculatively. In the ...
Prospero, Peter
Pseudonym, likely used by US editor and author Nathan Covington Brooks (1809-1898) for the novel-length sf tale, "The Atlantis: A Southern World" [for full title see Checklist] (September 1838-June 1839 American Museum of Science, Literature, and the Arts), the first four chapters of which appeared in The Man Who Called Himself Poe (anth 1969) edited by Sam Moskowitz. The tale itself is like and unlike Edgar Allan ...
Worlds of the Universe
UK pocketbook-size Magazine. One undated issue [November] 1953, published by Gould-Light Publishing, London; edited anonymously by its publisher, Norman Light. Contributors of the three negligible stories were John Russell Fearn as Mark Denholm, Thomas W Wade as Manning Stern and John Sylvassey. Copies are rarely seen. [FHP] links / ...
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 ...