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Sunday 1 December 2024
Welcome to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Fourth Edition. Some sample entries appear below. Click here for the Introduction; here for the masthead; here for 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 1 December 2024
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Lermina, Jules
(1839-1915) French journalist and author, who sometimes wrote as William Cobb (usually for work set in America), active from 1859, suffering arrest for his opposition to the Second Empire of Napoleon III; in the 1880s, he became honorary president of a contorted dynastic descendant of the Theosophical Society (see Theosophy); his novels include two nonfantastic sequels to Alexandre Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo ...
Ayckbourn, Alan
(1939- ) UK playwright, active from 1959 with at least ninety plays produced; much of his work verges into Fantastika, some of which is of strong specific sf interest, including a triad of dramas which might almost (but not quite) be thought of as a loose series devoted to Androids in distressed English domestic environments. Henceforward (performed 1987; 1988) is set in an oppressive ...
Maddoux, Marlin
(1933-2004) US radio talk host, founder of International Christian Media and the National Center for Freedom and Renewal, and author whose The Seal of Gaia: A Novel of the Antichrist (1998) conceives in Christian terms of apocalyptic events in a 2033 world run by a single government in the name of Gaia, but whose secret agenda (see Paranoia) is evil. [JC]
Marryat, Florence
(1833-1899) UK author, playwright, editor (of London Society magazine 1872-1876) and actress, daughter of the naval officer and pioneering sea-story author Captain Frederick Marryat (1792-1848); now perhaps best remembered for her espousal of Spiritualism as recorded in such late nonfiction works as There Is No Death (1891) and The Spirit World (1894) [not listed below]. She was a prolific author of sensational novels from 1865 onwards, also publishing both ...
Sakers, Don
(1958-2021) Japanese-born reviewer and author, in USA from an early age, who began publishing sf with "Gamester" for Questar in 1981; his short work appeared in various magazines through the 1980s, and he published occasional fiction in the twenty-first century; as a reviewer, he published more than a hundred columns as regular reviewer of the Reference Library series for Analog, beginning with a guest appearance in the March 2009 issue. Much of his ...
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 ...