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Wednesday 9 July 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 7 July 2025
Sponsor of the day: Andy Richards of Cold Tonnage Books
McMahon, Thomas
(1943-1999) US scientist specializing in biomechanics, and author, three of whose novels teasingly gain fuel and impetus from the fantastic, broadly conceived. Principles of American Nuclear Chemistry: A Novel (1970), a Young Adult tale set at the time of the Manhattan Project during World War Two, skirts Fantastika through its depiction of the Invention ...
Serling, Carol
(1929-2020) US editor and Television producer, married to Rod Serling from 1948 until his death in 1975 and long associated with his enterprises, in particular The Twilight Zone (1959-1964). She edited Rod Serling's Night Gallery Reader (anth 1987) with Martin H Greenberg and Charles G Waugh (see ...
Watson, Tom
(1982- ) UK author whose first novel Metronome (2022) is set in a Near Future Dystopian UK where women have lost control of their bodies (see Sex; Women in SF); the protagonists, a young couple planning to conceive without permission, have been exiled to a northern Island. The focus on these years (see ...
Casto, Jackie
(1939-2019) US author who wrote romances variously under her full name and also as by Jackie Black; active for more than a decade from 1982. She is of sf interest for the Destiny sequence beginning with Dreams of Destiny (1990), whose protagonist, a psychic (see Psi Powers) is rescued from a planet devastated by War and given the chance to go wandering in a romance-filled Space Opera ...
Edmonds, Leigh
(1948- ) Australian historian (with a PhD in history) and author active in Fandom since 1966; recipient of four Ditmar Awards for Fanzines and fan writing. His Fanew Sletter (100 issues, February 1974 to July 1978) was a noted Australian Newszine in its day; his many other fanzines included Ornithopter (11 ...
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 ...