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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 ...
Rata
Pseudonym of Welsh-born journalist and author Thomas Richard Roydhouse (1862-1943), in New Zealand from the late 1880s and then Australia; in his Near Future Yellow Peril novel, The Coloured Conquest (1904), Japan conquers Australia and the rest of the world; by 1913 whites everywhere are doomed. [JC]
Nash, Henry
(? -? ) UK author who contributed stories to such journals as Blackwood's Magazine and The Graphic; Bare Rock; Or, the Island of Pearls (1891), a Lost Race tale for boys climaxing on an Island where non-whites, who enjoy a moderately advanced Technology, are governed by a queen who is white. [JC]
Pick, J B
(1921-2015) UK scholar, poet and author, for many years a specialist in the work of David Lindsay, editing several of his works; The Strange Genius of David Lindsay (anth 1970; vt The Haunted Man 1979) with Colin Wilson and E H Visiak conveys a strongly sympathetic view of the author. Pick's own fiction includes A Land Fit for 'Eros (1957) with John ...
Johnson, Edgar
(1912-1990) US ceramic artist and author, for whose works of sf interest in collaboration with his wife Annabel Johnson, see her entry. Johnson should not to be confused with Edgar Johnson (1901-1972), an earlier novelist. [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 ...