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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 ...
Wallace, F L
(1915-2004) US mechanical engineer and author who began publishing sf with "Hideaway" for Astounding in 1951, but was more strongly associated with Galaxy in the 1950s, the period of his greatest activity, where he quickly established a reputation for style, wit and emotional depth. Worlds in Balance (coll 1955) assembles two typical stories, but he never put together a full collection of his work, and left the field around 1960. ...
Serpell, Namwali
(1980- ) Zambian-born author, in USA from the age of nine. She is of initial interest for the nonfiction Seven Modes of Uncertainty (2014), which explicitly draws some of its strategies from William Empson's Seven Types of Ambiguity (1930), arguing for the vital importance of "structures of conflicting information" in the work of authors like Thomas Pynchon; in this ...
Human Kind Of
US animated online series (2018). Facebook Watch. Created by Diana McCorry. Executive Producers Adam Belfer, James Belfer, Diana McCorry and Daniel Shepard. Written by Jamie Loftus, Diana McCorry, Daniel Shepard and Moujan Zolfaghari. Directed by Joy Buran and Noelle Melody. Voice cast includes Kate Berlant, Jamie Loftus, Zak Orth, Jill Talley and Michelle Trachtenberg. Twenty-one 4-10 minute episodes to date. Colour. / On her sixteenth birthday, science nerd Judy Reilly ...
Muir, Edwin
(1887-1959) Scottish poet, translator and author, prevented by ill health from active service in World War One, though his early poetry reflects upon the consequences of that disaster for the world. He is best known for the translations with his wife Willa Muir of very nearly the entire works of Franz Kafka, introducing that central figure to the English-language world. It has been suggested that ...
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 ...