SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Wednesday 16 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
Sponsor of the day: The League of Fan Funds
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 ...
Hekking, Avis
(1878-1945) US author – she may have been born while her parents were temporarily in Europe – resident in UK at some point, perhaps permanently; of her works, A King of Mars (1908) is of interest for its depiction of life on Mars, which is moderately advanced, with advanced Airships; Communications are soon established between Mars and Earth, via a small globe which contains ...
Horror in SF
The central premise that sf is a literature of rational, scientifically based extrapolation lies at the heart of many Definitions of SF, but can be misleading when it is argued that sf can only be so described (see Science Fiction for a slightly looser wording). Much sf is anti-science, for reasons partly historic and perhaps partly intrinsic: the relationship of Fantastika to ...
Furman, Yael
(1973- ) Israeli author, who began publishing work of genre interest with "Hatzvaim Ha'nechonim" ["The Right Colours"] in Bli Panika (see Online Magazines) for October 2001. For the next few years she published well-regarded short stories in Israeli genre publications, such as the magazine Chalomot Be'aspamia and the annual Anthology series Hayo Yihiye, for ...
Harris, Richard R
(? - ) US author of The Martian Solution (1997 chap), a short sf novel set on Mars featuring a woman detective. [JC]
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 ...