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Thursday 12 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 ...
De Las Cuevas, Ramon
Pseudonym of US anthropologist, archaeologist, museum curator and author Mark Raymond Harrington (1882-1971) whose only known work of fiction, the novella "Teoquitla the Golden" (November 1924 Weird Tales), is a Lost Race tale embedding within some typical Clichés of the form an early, interesting and nonjudgmental Transgender SF plot. The protagonist finds a ...
Monsters and Imagi-Movies
US letter-size perfect-bound Media Magazine printed on newsprint-quality paper. Publisher: New Media Publications. Editor: Forrest J Ackerman. One undated but numbered issue, 1985. / One of Ackerman's several unsuccessful efforts to return to publishing in the vein of Famous Monsters of Filmland between the end of the original run in 1983 and its first revival in 1993, ...
Thurlow, David
(1932-2021) UK journalist for various local papers, the Daily Express (for 26 years) and The Times; author of several thrillers and true crime books. His sf novel for Robert Hale Limited is The Sleepers (1980), set in a Near Future Dystopian Britain under control of the extreme Left; the only opposition remaining – which proves successful – is the ...
Sobol, Ken
(1938-2010) US author and screenwriter, in Canada from 1974 onwards. Sobol is probably best known for his numerous scripts for animated and live-action Television programmes. These include contributions to the short animated feature A Cosmic Christmas (1977) for Nelvana/Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, a fable in which a boy encounters three visitors from outer space who seek the meaning of Christmas; Sobol's book adaptation is ...
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 ...