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Thursday 12 June 2025
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 June 2025
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Longyear, Barry B
(1942-2025) US author and editor who ran a printing company with his wife before beginning to write in 1977, beginning to publish work of genre interest with "The Tryouts" in Asimov's for November/December 1978. Before his 1981 hospitalization for alcoholism and addiction to prescription drugs – an experience which formed the basis of his non-sf novel Saint Mary Blue (1988) – he had already published prolifically, sometimes as by Frederick ...
Martin, Nettie Parrish
(1840-1915) US author of Indian Legends of Early Days (coll 1905), where she renders traditional Indian tales into English verse. A Pilgrim's Progress in Other Worlds: Recounting the Wonderful Adventures of Ulysum Storries and his Discovery of the Lost Star "Eden" (1908) is an sf novel whose protagonist, the inventor (see Invention) of a bird-like flying machine powered by electricity and capable of ...
Al-Khalili, Jim
Working name of Iraqi-born broadcaster, physicist, academic and author Jameel Sadik Al-Khalili (1962- ), in the UK from 1979; several of his nonfiction publications, beginning with Black Holes, Wormholes and Time Machines (1999), have been addressed to the intelligent general reader. He is of sf interest for his first novel, Sunfall (2019), describes a Near Future Disaster perhaps ...
Murray, Kate
(? -? ) UK author of The Blue Star (1907), featuring the Invention of an electrical device capable of transferring vital energy from one body to another. [JC]
Roberts, John Maddox
(1947-2024) US author, prolific from the later 1980s to 2011, who also wrote nonfantastic novels as by Mark Ramsay. His first sf novel, The Strayed Sheep of Charun (1977; rev vt Cestus Dei 1983), is an action-packed romance set on a medievalized planet (see Medieval Futurism) in which Jesuits and others attempt to reform the violence which is the planet's (and novel's) raison d'être. There followed a variety of ...
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 ...