SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Sunday 15 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
Sponsor of the day: John Howard
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 ...
Baker, Sharon
(1938-1991) US author of three Planetary Romances – all set on the planet Naphar – whose richly layered Fantasy surface conceals much sf underpinning: Naphar's poisonous environment has an sf explanation; the planet has been colonized by humans who interbred with the native race; and contacts with galactic civilization remain active. Quarreling, They Met the Dragon (1984) describes the coming to ...
Gier, Scott G
(1948- ) US author of a military sf series, the Genellan sequence – comprising Genellan: Planetfall (1995), Genellan: In the Shadow of the Moon (1996), Genellan: First Victory (1997) and Genellan: Earth Siege (2005) – in which an First Contact between a gingerly expansionist humanity and a mysterious Alien race called the Ulaggi ends in ...
Meyers, Roy
(1910-1974) UK practising physician and author whose first sf novel, The Man They Couldn't Kill (1944), introduces the vastly talented Dr D'eath, a Superman capable of inducing Hypnotic trances at a distance and of scientifically arranging for souls to take out-of-body excursions. Falsely convicted of a murder, D'eath clears his name and might have starred in a sequence of Doc Savage-like adventures had the book ...
Turzillo, Mary A
Working name of US academic, poet and author Mary A Turzillo Brizzi (1940- ), whose scholarly work (see Critical and Historical Works About SF) appeared as by Mary T Brizzi; she is married to Geoffrey A Landis. Most of her fiction has appeared in the form of short stories, beginning with "The Great Age" in Pig Iron: Science Fiction (anth 1982 chap) edited by ...
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 ...