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Wednesday 16 July 2025
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 14 July 2025
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Rather, Lina
(? - ) US author who began publishing work of genre interest with "Marking the Witch" in Flash Fiction Online for February 2017 (see Flash Fiction). Her first novel, Sisters of the Vast Black (short version first appeared Tor.com Publishing 2019 Debut Sample, anth 2019 ebook: 2019), which is set in a galaxy-encompassing Space Opera universe, traces the ...
Raymond, John
A rarely used House Name of John Spencer and Co, appearing on the novel Zamba of the Jungle (1951) by Leonard G Fish and on the title story by R L Fanthorpe of Supernatural Stories No. 2: The Incredulist (anth 1954). The latter was issued under Spencer's Badger Books imprint; confusingly, "The Incredulist" is credited on the cover to ...
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]
Smith Spark, Anna
(? - ) UK author known mainly for her grimdark fantasy [for Dark Fantasy here and Hidden Monarch below see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below], who has also written as Anna Smith-Spark; she began to publish work of genre interest with "A Moment in the Conquest of the World" in BFS Horizons for August 2017. Her first series, the Empires of Dust sequence beginning with ...
Templeton, Timothy
Pseudonym of US author Charles Adams (? -? ), whose sf Satire on antebellum America, The Adventures of My Cousin Smooth; Or, the Little Quibbles of Great Governments (1856), though allegorized as a series of letters to Uncle Sam, does feature a voyage in a Balloon at such a speed that the Sun is overtaken. [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 ...