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Friday 16 January 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 January 2026
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von Däniken, Erich
(1935-2026) Swiss author of a series of purportedly nonfiction books, beginning with Erinnerungen an die Zukunft (1968; trans Michael Heron as Chariots of the Gods? 1969), which, based on a mass of often suspect and internally inconsistent data, argues that the Earth was visited by at least one Alien spacefaring race before and at the dawn of historical time; thus, for example, the Great Pyramid of ...
Adams, Scott
(1957-2026) US author and cartoonist best known for the Dilbert strip published from 1989, which when at its best superbly (in terms of concept and accuracy of Satire rather than quality of drawing) satirized contemporary office life and corporate incompetence. As with most ambitious modern comic strips, it segues frequently into sf and fantasy tropes – such as Robot office workers, wish-fulfilling ...
Michaels, Melisa C
(1946-2019) US author who began publishing work of genre interest with "In the Country of the Blind, No One Can See" in Asimov's for January 1979, but concentrated mostly on longer fiction. She remains best known for her Skyrider sequence of sf adventures – Skirmish (1985), First Battle (1985), Last War (1986), Pirate Prince (1987) and Floater Factor (1987) – depicting the ...
Weaver, Wertie Clarice
(? -? ) US teacher and author, a founder of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority in 1913, who used her experience as an African American to focus the intensity of her Utopia, The Valley of the Poor (1945), in which racial prejudice (see Race in SF) has been cured medically. [JC]
Hearne, Kevin
(1970- ) US author almost all of whose work has been fantasy and supernatural fiction, like the extensive Iron Druid Chronicles beginning with Hounded (2011), which features the sometimes picaresque adventures of a Shapeshifting next-to-Immortal druid in Arizona; Vampires and Nordic deities complicate his life. The Oberon's Meaty Mysteries sequence ...
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 ...