SF Encyclopedia Home Page
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
Sponsor of the day: The League of Fan Funds
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 ...
Gowing, Sidney
(1877-1943) UK author who also wrote as by David Goodwin, as by John Goodwin (who should be distinguished from the real John C Goodwin), and as by John Tregillis. Much of his work for the Boys' Papers appeared as single-issue tales (here treated as individual titles) in the Boys' Friend Library, either reprinted from earlier sources or original, beginning with the nonfantastic Man to Man (1908) as by David ...
Kalfař, Jaroslav
(1988- ) Czech-born author, in USA from the age of fifteen. His first novel, Spaceman of Bohemia (2017), initially depicts an abstractly conceived journey through the inner Solar System, narrated with an indifferent hauteur as to any literal understanding of the SF Megatext typical of the Mainstream Writer of SF; but in this case savingly aerated by ...
Dickson, Gordon R
(1923-2001) Canadian-born author, in the USA since age 13, becoming an American citizen many decades before his death; half-brother of Lovat Dickson. He was educated (along with Poul Anderson) at the University of Minnesota, taking his BA in English in 1948, and remained in Minnesota. After World War Two he re-established the Minneapolis Fantasy Society, with Anderson a central participant (Clifford D ...
Burke, Ralph
Pseudonym used for magazine stories 1956-1958, primarily by Robert Silverberg alone, but three times in collaboration with Randall Garrett. [JC/DRL]
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 ...