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Monday 5 October 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 5 October 2026
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Goldberg, Marshall
(1930-2005) US physician, teacher and author (sometimes as Marshall Goldberg, M D) of medical thrillers, some of which move into the Near Future, including Disposable People (1980) with Kenneth Kay, about a disease which suddenly ravages America, and Nerve (1981). He should not be confused with his father, the football player Marshall Goldberg (1917-2006). [JC]
Yolen, Jane
(1939-2026) US author, partially resident in Scotland, who began publishing poems and articles when still in college, and who first came to notice with books for children, the first of many being Pirates in Petticoats (1963). Of her circa 460 titles, many of which won awards in her field, most were for children (see listing below for some of these), many of them being picture books for younger children; most of her adult fiction, of which she wrote relatively little, was ...
Wicks, Mark
(? -? ) UK author whose Scientific Romance To Mars Via the Moon: An Astronomical Story (1911) recounts the construction of a Spaceship capable of taking its bereaved solitary builder first to the Moon and then to Mars, which is described in accordance with the theories of Percival Lowell; ...
Leichter, Hilary
(1985- ) US author whose first novel, Temporary (2020), edges into the water margins of Fantastika through its protagonist's surreally transformative search for what, in the third decade of the twenty-first century, she calls "steadiness". Her experiences – for instance as a "human barnacle" – may be read metaphorically, though they are far more illuminating if taken as literal; under the latter strategy, ...
Wood, Christopher
(1935-2015) UK screenwriter and author, in the latter capacity most successful with his Confessions sequence of nonfantastic Sex comedies beginning with Confessions of a Window Cleaner (1974) as by Timothy Lea [series not listed below]. He was the screenwriter for two James Bond films. The Technothriller The Spy Who Loved Me (1997) – which has no plot elements in common with Ian ...
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 ...