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Tuesday 13 May 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 12 May 2025
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Fabian, Stephen E
(1930-2025) American artist, sometimes credited as Steve Fabian or simply Fabian. The self-trained Fabian first worked as an electronic engineer, but he began contributing art to Fanzines in the late 1960s and became a full-time professional artist in 1973. He did a number of covers and interior art for SF Magazines, mostly Amazing, Fantastic, and ...
Jones, Mervyn
(1922-2010) UK journalist and author, son of Ernest Jones (1879-1958), Sigmund Freud's biographer; now best known for his many novels (twenty-nine were published) from 1952, though he gained early fame with his political writings in journals like Tribune and the New Statesman. On the Last Day (1958) is a Near-Future story about a Russian/Chinese Invasion of Britain, during a non-nuclear ...
Watts, John
Pseudonym of Scottish author Hugh Miller (1937- ), who under his own name has written crime novels, often involving forensic medicine, and Ties to the UK Eastenders television soap opera, which is nonfantastic. Head of State (1979) as Watts is a Near Future tale in which a scientist's brain is transplanted (see Identity Transfer) into the body of the ...
Mars, Alastair
(1915-1985) Canadian-born soldier and author, in the UK from infancy, in the Navy from 1932; he became well known for the 1952 court martial that ended his military career (in the midst of a dispute regarding his penury at naval rates of pay, he had refused to report for duty); his last rank was lieutenant commander. After 1952, he published several novels that drew on his intimate knowledge of submarines at war Under the Sea (he had been commander of ...
Reynolds, Alfred
(? - ) US author of Kiteman of Karanga (1985; vt Kiteman 1986), a Young Adult Planetary Romance set on Eftah, whose people are saved from the tyrannous lizard-riders known as the Hrithdon by the kite-rider Hero, young Karl, who is back from exile. [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 ...