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Sunday 15 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 ...
Blayre, Christopher
Pseudonym of UK lawyer, biologist, violin-maker, translator and author Edward Heron-Allen (1861-1943) whose first publication, Violin-Making as It Was and Is (1884), based on his own practical experience, remains in print. Also under his own name, he wrote The Princess Daphne (1885), a novel of psychic vampirism, and A Fatal Fiddle: The Commonplace Tragedy of a Snob and Other Stories (coll of linked stories 1890), a ...
Tuckerisms
Item of fan Terminology usually denoting the Recursive-SF naming of fictional characters for members of the sf and fan community. The term derives from Wilson Tucker, who frequently "tuckerized" friends and whose Wild Talent (1954; exp 1955; vt The Man from Tomorrow 1955) is a classic – though far from the first – instance. Character surnames in this ...
Crandall, Reed
(1917-1982) US illustrator best known for his work in Comics and, latterly, for a series of Edgar Rice Burroughs illustrations done in the early 1960s for Canaveral Press (see Richard A Lupoff). Crandall received his formal art education at Cleveland School of Art and at New York's Arts Students League. Even before graduating from the former, where he'd majored in ...
Kiwerski, Krzysztof
(1948- ) Polish director, writer, animator and painter. After studying at the High School of Fine Arts in Poznań, he went on to graduate from Krakow's Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts Faculty of Painting in 1973. Kiwerski would become head of the Academy's Animation Art Studio, as well as a Professor of Fine Arts in its Faculty of Graphic Arts. He also worked for the Animated Film Studio ("Studio Filmów Animowanych") in Krakow, for ...
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 ...