SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Tuesday 10 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: Andy Richards of Cold Tonnage Books
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 ...
Vargo Statten Science Fiction Magazine
UK magazine published by Scion, London, for the first seven issues, then Dragon Publications; edited by "Vargo Statten", a pseudonym of Alistair Paterson (1902-1976) for seven issues, and thereafter of John Russell Fearn. 19 issues, January 1954 to [February] 1956. Nominally monthly, but see below. / All but the first two issues were undated. The first three issues were standard Pulp size, if a little thin, then large ...
Science Fiction Review (Monthly), The
Digest-sized semiprofessional critical Magazine (see Semiprozine) published by Bran Dougal. Edited by Martin Last, with Baird Searles and Don Yee as associate editors. Twenty monthly issues, March 1975 to October 1976, with #17/#18 for July/August 1976 being a double issue. / The first issue was titled The Science Fiction Review and featured reviews by all three ...
Rayer, Francis G
(1921-1981) UK author and technical journalist (specializing in radio issues) who began publishing with Juggernaut (1944) for Link House Publications. His first sf novel was the unremarkable Realm of the Alien (1946 chap) as by Chester Delray, and his most notable was perhaps Tomorrow Sometimes Comes (1951), in which the general who has inadvertently caused a nuclear Holocaust awakens from ...
Otaku Elf
Japanese animated tv series (2023). Original title Edomae Elf. C2C. Directed by Takebumi Anzai. Written by Shōgo Yasukawa, based on the Manga by Akihiko Higuchi. Voice cast includes Ami Koshimizu and Yuka Ozaki. Twelve 24-minute episodes. Colour. / 400 years ago, Elda (Koshimizu), an Immortal elf from another Dimension, took over the role of goddess ( ...
Clute, John
(1940- ) Canadian critic, editor and author, in the UK from 1969; married to Judith Clute from 1964, partner of Elizabeth Hand since 1996. He began to publish work of genre interest with an sf-tinged poem "Carcajou Lament" in Triquarterly for Winter 1960 [ie Autumn 1959]; he began consistently publishing sf reviews in his "New Fiction" column for the Toronto Star (1966-1967), and later in ...