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Monday 9 February 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 9 February 2026
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Carver, Jeffrey A
(1949-2026) US author who began publishing sf with "... Of No Return" in Fiction Magazine for 1974. His first novel, Seas of Ernathe (1976), which serves as an introduction to the loose Star Rigger sequence of Space Operas, showed early signs of a love of plot and thematic complexity which would take him some time, and several novels, to control. The continuation, Star Rigger's Way (1978), for instance, combines quest ...
Roberts, Andrew
(1963- ) UK journalist, historian and author much of whose work has focused on the history of Great Britain from a conservative position, during the course of which he has argued that George W Bush's term of office as American President was successful due to his prosecution of the second Iraq War. Of sf interest is The Aachen Memorandum (1995), a spoofish Near Future thriller in which UK fears of cultural obliteration within ...
Butler, William Francis
(1838-1910) Irish soldier and author whose military involvement in the Riel Rebellion in western Canada resulted in his recommending the creation of what would eventually become the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. He was in active service, with the rank of colonel, when he published anonymously a Battle of Dorking tale, The Invasion of England: Told Twenty Years After (1882) as By an Old Soldier, in which Germany mounts an ...
de Polnay, Peter
(1906-1984) Hungarian-born author, in the UK from before World War Two. Of his very many novels, only The Stuffed Dog (1977), a Time-Travel tale, is of genre interest. [JC]
Mirror's Edge
Videogame (2008). Digital Illusions CE. Designed by Thomas Andersson. Platforms: PS3, XB360 (2008); Win (2009). / Mirror's Edge is a platform game (see Videogames) which is displayed using three-dimensional graphics. Unusually for a Videogame which depends on the "platform" mechanics of jumping and climbing, events are seen from the protagonist's perspective rather than from ...
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 ...