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Monday 16 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 ...
Whitman, John Pratt
(1871-1963) US artist, playwright and author, perhaps best known for The Sympathy of the People: A Drama of Today (1920), a nonfantastic advocacy of labour reform based on the Boston police strike of 1919. Utopia Dawns (coll 1934) contains essays on Utopias, including texts by Sir Thomas More, William Morris, H G Wells and others; an ...
Fretland, Don J
(? - ) US author of the Oleandre Trilogy series beginning with The Persimmion Sequence (1970), set in a Near Future Dystopian world where scientists have been driven Underground though – it may be – there is some hope that Mars clings to independence. [JC]
Murphy, Robert Franklin
(? - ) US author of the Near Future Girl Factory sequence of erotized Technothrillers beginning with The Girl Factory (1975), featuring a team of Androids created to defend America from its foes. [JC]
Lorraine, Lilith
One of at least five pseudonyms of Mary Maude Wright (née Dunn) (1894-1967), US poet, editor, radio lecturer and author, who regularly published sf in the 1930s Pulp magazines. The Brain of the Planet (1929 chap), from Hugo Gernsback's Science Fiction Series, portrays a Feminist Utopia founded after a socialist ...
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 ...