SF Encyclopedia Home Page
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
Sponsor of the day: Paul Giamatti
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 ...
Bierce, Ambrose
(1842-circa 1914) US journalist, poet and author of short stories and Satires, deeply affected by his four years in the American Civil War (he enlisted as a private in 1861, was breveted major for bravery, and was wounded twice). Like Bret Harte and Mark Twain (who were both resident in London in the 1870s, as for shorter periods was Joaquin Miller), he soon went ...
Serpell, Christopher
(1910-1991) UK journalist and Intelligence Office during World War Two, whose Loss of Eden: A Cautionary Tale (1940; vt If Hitler Comes: A Cautionary Tale 1941) with Douglas Brown is a strong Hitler Wins tale in which appeasement leads to German occupation of Britain, with desolate consequences (for more details see his collaborator). [JC]
Lusk, Sean
(? - ) UK political scientist and author, initially of nonfantastic short fiction, including A Flood in the Yucatan (2017). He is of some sf interest for a Steampunk tale, The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley (2022), set in an Alternate World version of eighteen-century Europe, with the action moving to Constantinople. The protagonist's second sight (see ...
Sparhawk, Bud
Working name of US author John C Sparhawk (1937- ), who began to publish work of genre interest with "The Tomkins Battery Case" in Analog for August 1976, his best known short work being the Sam Boone sequence of tales beginning with "Sam Boone and the Thermal Couple" (October 1995 Analog), about a helterskelter but competent human who deals with visiting Aliens from various parts of ...
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 ...