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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 ...
Oliver, Owen
Pseudonym of UK civil servant and author Joshua Albert Flynn (1863-1933), active in various genres, publishing prolifically in magazines, always as by Owen Oliver, from before the end of the nineteenth century; his books, including at least two novels, were nonfantastic. During his lifetime, his work of genre interest was published solely in magazines, the first of these perhaps being "The Man Who Could Not Forget" (10 October 1902 The London Magazine); many later tales appeared in ...
Malkus, Alida Sims
Working name of US author Lyda Sims Malkus (1888-1976), usually of historical juveniles insubstantially tinged with fantasy; of sf interest is The Dark Star of Itza: The Story of a Pagan Princess (1930), a Lost Race tale set in southern Mexico; a vision of Mayan civilization is intensely and informatively conveyed. [JC]
Cowan, James
(1841-1906) US author and journalist whose sf novel, Daybreak: A Romance of an Old World (1896), features an ambulatory Moon which after falling into the Pacific Ocean makes it possible for the narrator of the tale, with companions, to fly to Mars in a Balloon, where they discover a new defence of Christianity in the form of parallel Evolution and multiple incarnations of ...
Dengelegi, Paul
(1963- ) US author of two Ties to Barry Sadler's Casca series about an undying mercenary on eternal call: Barry Sadler's Casca: The Liberator (1999) and Barry Sadler's Casca: The Defiant (2001). [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 ...