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Tuesday 13 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 12 October 2026
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Edwards, Malcolm
(1949-2026) UK editor, critic and publisher, educated at Cambridge, where he graduated in anthropology. Active in UK sf Fandom in the 1970s and early 1980s, he published the first complete text of James Blish's "The Science in Science Fiction" (May 1951-May 1952 Science Fiction Quarterly) in his Fanzine Quicksilver #2 in 1971; edited the ...
Hakim, Tawfiq al-
(1898-1987) Regarded along with Nobel-prize winning author Najib Mahfuz as the most important modern Egyptian author, author of over 50 books of short stories, novels, dramas and essays, some of sf interest. In 1947 he published his first sf short story, "Fi sana malyun" ["In the Year Million"]. His most interesting sf works are plays. In Rihla ila al-ghad (1950; trans as "Voyage to Tomorrow" 1981) he uses relativistic Time Travel during ...
Olsen, Bob
Working name of US teacher, advertising copywriter, real estate agent and author Alfred Johannes Olsen Jr (1884-1956), who began publishing sf with "The Four-Dimensional Roller-Press" in Amazing for June 1927; this was the first of several tales in the Four-Dimensional sequence. Other tales featured Professor Archimedes Banning, whose exploits were patterned on the model of the Edisonade. One magazine story, ...
Johnson, Bill
(1956-2022) US author, journalist, technical writer and business administrator, a Clarion Science Fiction Writers' Workshop graduate, who began to publish work of genre interest with "Stormfall" in Clarion SF (anth 1977) edited by Kate Wilhelm. Much of his fiction is strongly flavoured by his South Dakota origins, as in his best-known story "We Will Drink a Fish Together ..." (May 1997 ...
Aaronovitch, Ben
(1964- ) UK author, initially best known for his Television involvement, whose first genre work was the script for the Doctor Who serial Remembrance of the Daleks (1988), one of the most successful adventures of that period in the series' life. Aaronovitch novelized it as Remembrance of the Daleks (1990). After the 1989 cancellation of Doctor Who, he wrote three contributions ...
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 ...