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Wednesday 6 December 2023
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 4 December 2023
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Compton, D G
(1930-2023) UK author, born of parents who were both in the theatre; he increasingly lived in the USA after 1981. As Guy Compton, he published some unremarkable detective novels, beginning with Too Many Murderers (1962), and as by Frances Lynch produced some nonfantastic Gothics throughout his career; but soon turned to sf with tales almost always set in the Near Future, and anatomizing moral dilemmas within that arena: the future is very clearly ...
Valens, E G
(1920-1992) US journalist, documentary film maker and author who is of sf interest for Cybernaut: A Space Poem (1968 chap), a narrative poem set in the Near Future and eulogizing the space programme. [JC]
Grove, Frederick Philip
(1879-1948) German-born Canadian translator, editor, poet and author born Felix Paul Berthold Friedrich Greve, in his early career a minor poet and a translator of H G Wells into German;his first novel, the nonfantastic Fanny Essler: ein Berliner Roman (1905; trans Christine Helmers 1984 2vols) as Felix Paul Greve, was a roman á clef damaging to his career; he moved to the USA in 1909. Greve/Grove used various pseudonyms in his ...
Adrian, Jack
Pseudonym of UK editor and author Christopher Lowder (1945- ) who wrote several sf and fantasy Comic strips and stories for boys' comics and papers in the 1970s and early 1980s while working for IPC/Fleetway. These include the controversial "Kids Rule OK" for Action (see Boys' Papers), "Adam Eterno" for Thunder and Lion, "Van Helsing" for The House of Hammer, "Timequake" and ...
Zelman, Aaron
(1946-2010) US author who collaborated on two sf novels with Libertarian themes: Rebelfire: Out of the Gray Zone (2005) with Claire Wolfe and Hope (2008) with L Neil Smith. He should not be confused with the television producer Aaron Zelman (1973- ). [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 ...