SF Encyclopedia Home Page
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 ...
Fantasy
There is no Definition of SF that excludes fantasy, other than prescriptive definitions so narrow that, were they applied, this encyclopedia would be reduced to ten per cent of its present length. We are talking about problems of definition raised by not a minority but a majority of all genre writings. Among the Genre-SF writers at least some of whose work would be excluded are Terry Bisson, Ray ...
Indick, Ben
(1923-2009) US fan, involved as a fan with American sf from before World War Two, and a member of First Fandom; he began publishing fiction of genre interest with "The Road to Dunwich" for Ibid in 1973, and remained moderately active as a short fiction writer for three decades. He is of sf interest as well for his nonfiction, which includes The Drama of Ray Bradbury (1977; rev vt Ray Bradbury: Dramatist 1989), and ...
Certificate X!
Letter-size saddle-stapled Cinema magazine. Published by World Distributors, from London despite the company name World Distributors (Manchester) Ltd. No editor named. One issue only, dated January 1965. / This was apparently only the second attempt – after Screen Chills and Macabre Stories – to produce a UK Monster Movies magazine. Leaving little doubt that its ...
Duffus, R L
(1888-1972) US journalist and author on various subjects, including two novels of genre interest: Night Between the Rivers (1937), a Near Future tale in which New York is disrupted by a brief general strike; and Jason Potter's Space Walk (1970) which conflates sf and fantasy as the protagonist is recruited by an angel to address the future of humanity. [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 ...