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Friday 14 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: David Cowhig
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 ...
Locus Award
Popular Award voted on by readers of the leading sf news magazine (or Newszine) Locus, and presented annually since 1971. Each year's Locus awards normally honour work first published in the previous year. Thanks to their exceptionally wide reader base, these sf awards have come to share the stature of the Hugos (which reflect the preferences of fans and professionals who attend ...
Armour, John
(1889-1954) Australian minister of the Presbyterian faith whose service in the Australian outback 1918-1920 inspired his fiction, of which Burning Air (1928) is sf. The premise – the eponymous radioactive wind promises to be a more or less free Power Source for Australia – is of potential interest, but the story itself is impossibly awkward, the author shows no real gift at landscape description, ...
Sketchley, Arthur
Pseudonym of UK playwright and author George Rose (1817-1882), the first of whose series of comic sketches presenting the erratic lower-class opinions of Mrs Brown was "How Mrs Brown Spent Christmas Day" (in Routledge's Annual, anth 1866). Her responses to George T Chesney's The Battle of Dorking (1871 chap), which she believes to be factual, are given in Mrs Brown on the Battle of Dorking (1871 chap) (see ...
Jones, Neil
(? - ) UK editor of two Warhammer 40,000 Ties: Warhammer 40,000: Deathwing (anth 1990; exp 2001) with David Pringle and Warhammer: The Laughter of Dark Gods (anth 2002) with David Pringle. [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 ...