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Thursday 24 April 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.
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Broderick, Damien
(1944-2025) Australian author, editor and critic; he had a PhD in the semiotics of fiction, science and sf with special reference to the work of Samuel R Delany. He edited four anthologies of Australian sf: The Zeitgeist Machine (anth 1977), Strange Attractors (anth 1985), Matilda at the Speed of Light (anth 1988) and Centaurus: The Best of Australian Science Fiction (anth ...
Anthologies
Before the late 1940s, sf short stories, novellas and novelettes (see Hugo for definitions) were largely restricted to Magazines. (Magazines are, of course, a form of anthology, but they are not so counted in this encyclopedia.) Since then, increasingly, many readers have been introduced to sf through stories collected in books. Books are less fragile, kept in print longer, available in libraries and (especially for young readers in ...
Byrd, Bob
(? - ) US author of a Tarzan pastiche, Ka-Zar, King of Fang and Claw (October 1936 Ka-Zar as "King of Fang and Claw"; 1937), in which young David Rand, orphaned after a plane crash in Africa, becomes the lord of the jungle, calling himself Ka-Zar. Two sequels followed, "Roar of the Jungle" (January 1937 Ka-Zar) and "The Lost Empire" (June 1937 ...
Lloyd-Jones, Robin
(1934- ) UK author, much of whose work, both nonfiction and fiction, is set in the Arctic; his novel of sf interest, The Dreamhouse (1985), set in a surreal Alaska, combines Steampunk and Gaslight Romance [see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below] in a narrative set mostly Underground, in a vast network of goldmining tunnels ...
Rock, Pam
Joint pseudonym of a writing team comprising Barbara Andrews (? - ) and Pamela S Hanson (? - ), Hanson being Andrews's daughter; they also write nonfantastic romantic fiction as by Jennifer Drew, Pam Andrews Hanson, Evangeline Kelley. As Rock they are responsible for the romantic Planetary Romance Moon sequence beginning with Moon of Desire (1993), set on a ...
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 ...