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Saturday 8 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 3 August 2026
Sponsor of the day: Paul Giamatti
Winawer, Melodie
(circa 1968- ) US neurologist, research scientist and author whose first novel, The Scribe of Siena (2017) is a Timeslip tale whose protagonist, a neurosurgeon, is transported into fourteenth century Siena, her transposition triggered by the sight of her face on a painting by the (fictional) Gabriele Accorsi. It is just before the Black Death savagely afflicts the affluent, bustling City. ...
Worth, Nigel
Pseudonym of UK navy officer and author Noel Wright (1890-1975), in active service during World War One, and who reached flag rank in the Royal Navy during World War Two. He is of sf interest for The Arms of Phaedra: A Tale of Wonder and Adventure (1924), a Lost Race tale set in Crete, where ancient Minoans are found to have survived. The Wise Man of Welby (1924) is ...
Peters, Alan
(? -? ) UK author of The Secret Formula (1932), a Near Future tale in which a cure for cancer is discovered (see Medicine). [JC]
Korea
After 1945, the history of Korean Science Fiction unfolds across two states with contrasting ideological frameworks: North Korea, where sf was shaped by revolutionary didacticism and the Juche ("self-reliance") state ideology; and South Korea, where the genre emerged in fits and starts, often reflecting the nation's rapid industrialization, eventual democratization, and ambivalent embrace of ...
Cooney, Michael
(1921- ) Irish author of two Near Future novels, Doomsday England (1967) and Ten Days to Oblivion (1968), which predict the dire consequences of allowing any relaxation of vigilance against the foe, which is in this case Communism. [JC]
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 ...