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Friday 13 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.
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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 ...
Goldfrap, John Henry
(1879-1917) UK-born US journalist – his family moved to America in 1894 and settled in California – and author of various series of adventures for boys, almost always featuring two or more chums. Goldfrap always wrote under Pseudonyms. His series – only some of sf interest – include the Ocean Wireless Boys; the Boy Aviator Series of Airplane Boys stories, of which one volume, ...
Stilgebauer, Edward
(1868-1936) German editor, journalist and author, whose expression of pacifist sentiments during World War One may have influenced his departure from Germany; his pacifist novel, Inferno: Roman aus dem Weltkrieg (1916; trans C Thieme as Love's Inferno 1916), was banned in his native land, and he lived in Italy from 1917 until his death. In 1938 he was posthumously stripped of his PhD by the Nazis, and his ...
Gayle, Henry K
(1910-? ) UK-born author (possibly pseudonymous) and civil servant long resident in Canada whose horror/sf novel, Spawn of the Vortex (1957), plays on the nuclear-testing Paranoia of the 1950s. Underwater tests activate a horde of Monsters who advance upon the USA. [JC]
Herrin von Atlantis, Die
Film (1932; vt L'Atlantide; vt Lost Atlantis; vt The Mistress of Atlantis). Nero Film. Directed by G W Pabst (1885-1967). Written by Ladislaus Vajda, Hermann Oberländer, based on L'Atlantide (1919) by Pierre Benoit. Cast includes Jean Angelo (French version), Gustav Diessl (German version), Brigitte Helm and John Stuart (English version). 87 minutes. Black and white. / This German film is based on Benoit's ...
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 ...