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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 ...
Syrett, Netta
Working name of UK author Janet Syrett (1865-1943), whose fantasy tales, usually for younger children, are of little contemporary interest, a novel like The Castle of Four Towers (1909) for instance explaining its Timeslip structure as a dream [for fuller entry on Syrett see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below]. In her earlier career, however, as the niece of Grant ...
Williamson, Jack
Working name of US author John Stewart Williamson (1908-2006), which he used from the beginning of his career in 1928, though his Seetee stories were originally signed Will Stewart. Williamson was born in Arizona and raised (after stints in Mexico and Texas) on an isolated New Mexico homestead, and spent his last decades as well in New Mexico; he described his early upbringing and his first encounter with sf in the 1920s in his introduction and notes to The Early Williamson (coll ...
Prospero, Peter
Pseudonym, likely used by US editor and author Nathan Covington Brooks (1809-1898) for the novel-length sf tale, "The Atlantis: A Southern World" [for full title see Checklist] (September 1838-June 1839 American Museum of Science, Literature, and the Arts), the first four chapters of which appeared in The Man Who Called Himself Poe (anth 1969) edited by Sam Moskowitz. The tale itself is like and unlike Edgar Allan ...
Britton, David
(1945-2020) UK publisher and author, founder with Michael Butterworth (and briefly Charles Partington) of Savoy Books in 1976 in Manchester, whose early list included works by Michael Moorcock, Charles Platt and Jack Trevor Story. With Butterworth, he edited The Savoy Book (anth 1978) and ...
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 ...