SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Wednesday 11 March 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 March 2026
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Morgan, Chris
(1946- ) UK editor, critic and author who after several appearances in the Amateur Magazines SFinx (from 1969) and Macrocosm (Summer 1972) began to publish sf professionally with "Clown Fish and Anemone" in Science Fiction Monthly for April 1975. His fiction is generally unexceptional, though some stories – such as ...
Hemingway, Hilary
(1961- ) US author of several novels in collaboration with her husband, Jeffry P Lindsay; she has also published material about her uncle, Ernest Hemingway. An sf thriller series comprising Dreamland (1995) and Dreamchild (1998), both with Jeffry P Lindsay is told in a UFO mode, featuring an Alien kept secret by the ...
Murphy, Pat
Working name of US author Patrice Ann Murphy (1955- ), who began publishing work of genre interest with "No Mother Near" in Galaxy for October 1975, though the first story she wishes to acknowledge was "Nightbird at the Window" in Chrysalis 5 (anth 1979) edited by Roy Torgeson. Her first novel was the obscurely published The Shadow Hunter (1982; rev 2002), in which a Stone-Age ...
Rhodes, W H
(1822-1876) US lawyer, poet and author whose early work, like The Indian Gallows and Other Poems in Two Parts (coll 1846), but who soon began to publish newspaper pieces and stories under the name Caxton, notably The Case of Summerfield (13 May 1871 Sacramento Daily Union; 1907 chap), about a scientist who threatens to use his Invention – a technique for setting the oceans afire using potassium – unless he is paid a ...
Gothic SF
In current usage a "Gothic" is a romantic novel with a strong element of the mysterious or the supernatural which usually features the persecution of a woman in an isolated locale; but this restricted and specialized use of the word, and the marketing category associated with it, have little to do with most sf. The term "Gothic" entered the English language as a descriptive term for a particular kind of story with the publication of The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story (1764) by ...
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 ...