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Saturday 14 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
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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 ...
Wise, Robert
(1914-2005) US film director, who began his career as a film-cutter at RKO Studios and by 1939 was a fully qualified editor. He worked on Orson Welles's Citizen Kane (1941) and also – at the studio's insistence when the director was safely out of the country – directed a few scenes in Welles's The Magnificent Ambersons (1942). He then worked with the Val Lewton unit at RKO, first as editor, then as director. He made three ...
White, Skyler
Working name of US author (1967- ), whose surname is White and who describes the Skyler as a nickname; her first novel, And Falling, Fly (2010), is a supernatural romance set with some Equipoisal skill in a Steampunk world. Her second, In Dreams Begin (2010), is a Timeslip tale whose protagonist becomes involved with William Butler ...
Drummond, John Peter
House Name used in Fiction Houses's Jungle Stories between 1938 and 1954 for the Ki-Gor sequence, beginning with "Ki-Gor, King of the Jungle" (Winter 1938-1939 Jungle Stories); no authors have been identified. In book form, the Ki-Gor sequence, beginning with Ki-Gor: The Complete Series: Volume 1 (coll 2009), is complete through 1941. Ki-Gor, whose resemblance to Tarzan is manifest, seemingly ...
Thiusen, Ismar
Pseudonym of Scottish-born academic and author John Macnie (1836-1909), in the USA from 1867 and on the faculty of North Dakota University 1885-1903. His Utopia, The Diothas, or A Far Look Ahead (1883; vt A Far Look Ahead, or The Diothas 1890; vt Looking Forward, or The Diothas 1890), set several millennia hence (almost but not quite in the Far Future), is prolific with suggestions of progress. ...
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 ...