SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Saturday 7 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 6 February 2026
Sponsor of the day: Paul Giamatti
Sallis, James
(1944-2026) US musician, poet and author, briefly active in New Worlds during its Michael Moorcock-directed New-Wave phase; he began to publish work of genre interest in this context with "Kazoo" (August 1967 New Worlds) and co-edited the magazine 1968-1969. His clearly acknowledged models in the French avant garde and the gnomic brevity of much of his work ...
Vinge, Vernor
(1944-2024) US author and professor of mathematics at San Diego State University until 2000, when he retired to write full-time; married to Joan D Vinge 1972-1979. He began publishing sf with "Apartness" in New Worlds for June 1965, and appeared fairly regularly in Analog, his best early work being collected in True Names and Other Dangers (coll 1987), which contains ...
Cristabel
Pseudonym of US nurse, professor of nursing, and author Christine Elizabeth Abrahamsen (1916-1995), who wrote at least one Gothic as Kathleen Westcott, Bride of Kilkerran (1972). As Cristabel, she began publishing sf with the florid Veltakin sequence of Planetary Romances: Manalacor of Veltakin (1970) and The Cruachan and the Killane (1970). Her singletons were The Mortal Immortals (1971) and ...
Johns, Willy
(? - ) US author known only for The Fabulous Journey of Hieronymus Meeker (1954), a Fantastic Voyage tale in which a Gulliver-like protagonist (see Gulliver; Jonathan Swift) travels in the good ship Jeemarad to a planet where he discovers a Utopia based on constant transformation. [JC]
Captain Flash
US Comic (1954-1955). Sterling Comics Inc. Four issues. Artists include Mort Meskin and Mike Sekowsky. 36 pages, with four long strips (three featuring Captain Flash and one Tomboy) and a two page text piece – usually fiction, but in #2 a nonfiction piece on the problems of Rocket-powered Space Flight. / #1 opens with Superhero Captain Flash ...
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 ...