SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Thursday 17 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 16 July 2025
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Williams, Tess
(1954-2025) UK-born teacher, editor and author, in Australia for many years, there receiving a degree in literature from Curtin University and an MA in creative writing from the University of Western Australia. She began publishing work of genre interest with "The Padwan Affair" in She's Fantastical (anth 1995) edited by Judith Raphael Buckrich and Lucy Sussex. Of sf interest are two novels: Map of Power (1996), set mostly in a ...
Ellis, Albert C
(1947- ) US author who began publishing sf with the brief vignette "Fire in the Sky" in Vertex for December 1974, and who subsequently wrote two modest but readable sf adventures, Death Jag (dated 1979 but 1980) with Jeff Slaten, and Worldmaker (1985), whose protagonist's special brain allows him to change reality at will (see Godgame; Perception; ...
Neeper, Cary
Working name of US microbiologist and author Carolyn A Neeper (1937- ) for her fiction, which consists primarily of the ambitious A Place Beyond Man (1975), which somewhat uneasily combines a Hard-SF rendering of the Physics and Biology of her interplanetary venues with a contemplative sweep characteristic of the Scientific Romance. ...
Briggs, Raymond
(1934-2022) UK illustrator and author, active in both capacities from about 1958, and best known for several tales told in Graphic Novel format, including Fungus the Bogeyman (graph 1977) and the related pop-up book Fungus the Bogeyman Plop-Up Book (graph 1982). Both are arguably Equipoisal with sf, in which the meticulously worked-out topsy-turvy world of the melancholy ...
Half Japanese
American lo-fi punk band (sometimes written as ½ Japanese), formed in 1974 by the brothers Jad and David Fair. In their early days they were a shambolic but enthusiastic duo, comprising drums, electric guitar and strangulated vocals, with songs usually 1-2 minutes long; their first vinyl release, the 45rpm "Calling all Girls" (1977), had eleven tracks. Gradually they became more polished – or more studiously shambolic – adding further band members and longer songs; though Jad ...
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 ...