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Saturday 15 August 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 10 August 2026
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Crowley, John
(1942-2026) US teacher and author who also worked in documentary films and television for some time beginning in 1966. His sf novels have had a considerable impact on the field, and his fantasies established him as a figure whose work courteously but deeply stretched the boundaries of genre literature. / His first novel, The Deep (1975), is set on a flat discworld resting on a pillar that extends beyond measurement into the circumambient galactic Deep, in which very few stars ...
Traver, N K
(circa 1986- ) US author of Duplicity (2015), a Young Adult tale set in a Near Future America very similar to the contemporary world, but where seemingly covert access to Cyberspace – or perhaps a Virtual Reality constructed to resemble cyberspace – distressingly exposes the moderately dysfunctional young ...
Cox, Stephen
(? - ) US-born author, in UK from childhood, who is of sf interest for the Our Child sequence beginning with Our Child of the Stars (2018), set initially in the 1960s, after a Meteor has devastated a New England village (see Disaster), leaving an Alien infant to be raised by a human family. The tale darkens momentarily when it seems that Earth may be ...
MacLean, Alistair
(1922-1987) Scottish author whose novels are mostly – like The Guns of Navarone (1957) – well-crafted action adventures, usually set at least in part at sea. The Dark Crusader (1961; vt The Black Shrike 1961) and The Satan Bug (1962), both as by Ian Stuart, are Cold War thrillers which make use of sf McGuffins, though in the latter the eponymous manufactured virus ...
Shirley, George E
(1898-2002) US author whose routine sf novels – all very short – are A World of Their Own (1965 chap), in which the USA is destroyed by a nuclear attack and a surviving family in the UK awaits the time when they may safely return home; The Robot Rulers (1967 chap), in which Australia is overwhelmed by Robots; and A World Beyond (1967 chap), in which a new planet is discovered in the solar system and its ...
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 ...