SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Friday 20 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 16 June 2025
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Forsyth, Frederick
(1938-2025) UK author who gained fame with his first novel, The Day of the Jackal (1971), and whose books are generally political thrillers. The Shepherd (1975 chap), however, is a sentimental Timeslip or ghost fantasy in which a pilot on Christmas Eve 1957 is saved from crashing by a World War Two pilot in an antique bomber: pilot and plane had been shot down on the Christmas Eve of 1943. ...
SF in Translation
Speculative fiction is a global enterprise, and translation is the vehicle by which it becomes intelligible to readers around the world. This has been the case since Jules Verne began publishing in France, soon after which his texts were translated (often badly) into English for American and British consumption. Since then, the number of translated works of sf has risen and fallen based upon the interest (or lack thereof) of editors and anthologists in the ...
Wei Yahua
(1949- ) Chinese journalist, television pundit and author, who smuggled Soft Sciences and Satire into the Hard SF realm in China, particularly in several "robot/women" tales that allegorize Gender issues. / Wo Jueding yu Jiqiren Qizi Lihun ["I Decide to Divorce My Robot Wife"] (January 1981 Beijing Wenxue; fixup ...
Barr, Donald
(1921-2004) US author and academic, former assistant dean of the Engineering School of Columbia University, and author of several nonfiction works for children as well as Who Pushed Humpty Dumpty, or The Education of a Headmaster (1971), on US education. His sf novel, Space Relations: A Slightly Gothic Interplanetary Tale (1973), is a Space Opera interlaced amusingly with "literary" analogues to its tale of a space diplomat, sold into ...
Gibson, Joe
(1924-2006) US illustrator and author whose involvement in Fandom began a little earlier than the publication of his first work of genre interest, "I Like You, Too –" (October 1948 Thrilling Wonder Stories; 2023 ebook). He also wrote as by John Bridger and Carlton Furth; his illustrations seem to have appeared only in Fanzines. His work, mostly Space Opera, mostly ...
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 ...