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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 ...
MacKinlay, Sterling
(1876-1952) UK author whose Near Future sf novel, Reparation (1928), is a contribution to the prolonged debate about the treatment of defeated Germany after World War One; reparations begin in 1993. [JC]
Gómez Jimenez, Jorge
(1971- ) Venezuelan editor, author and poet. He edited the biweekly Magazine La Peña Literaria Cahuakao between 1988 and 1989 and the weekly magazine El Tabloide between 1990 and 1993. He is best known as the editor since 1996 of Letralia, Tierra de Letras, the very first Venezuelan Webzine about culture and literature. In his novel Los títeres ...
Balloons
For some six months in 1783 Paris was the Cape Canaveral of the eighteenth century as Parisians watched a succession of extraordinary ascents by hot-air balloons. The first successful manned trip took place on 21 November, as reported by Benjamin Franklin, and it started off a long series of speculations about the conquest of the air, almost certainly the first fictional response being The Aerostatic Spy: Or, Excursions with an Air Balloon by an Aerial Traveller (1785; exp vt ...
Biancotti, Deborah
(1971- ) Australian author who began publishing work of genre interest with "The First and Final Game" in Altair for August 2000, which appeared with other ambitious, complexly couched early work in A Book of Endings (coll 2009). The Bad Power (coll of linked stories 2011), presents a linked cast of Australians, their lives otherwise unconnected, who must learn to deal with their ...
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 ...