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Sunday 15 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 9 February 2026
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Carver, Jeffrey A
(1949-2026) US author who began publishing sf with "... Of No Return" in Fiction Magazine for 1974. His first novel, Seas of Ernathe (1976), which serves as an introduction to the loose Star Rigger sequence of Space Operas, showed early signs of a love of plot and thematic complexity which would take him some time, and several novels, to control. The continuation, Star Rigger's Way (1978), for instance, combines quest ...
O'Toole, George
(1936-2001) US specialist in espionage – he worked for the American Central Intelligence Agency 1966-1969 – and author of a very Near Future thriller, The Agent on the Other Side (1973), in which America and the USSR are at odds. [JC]
Wongar, B
Apparent pseudonym of Yugoslav-born author Streten Bozic (1932- ), in Australia from 1960; for some time, both names gave pause to researchers, as "Streten Bozic" could apparently be understood to mean "Merry Christmas" in Serbian, and "Birimbir Wongar" can be translated, from an Arnhem Land Aboriginal tongue, as something like "Dreaming Soul or Visitor", and "Banumbir Wongar", a version of the name used for a period, can be translated as something like "Spirit ...
Westall, Robert
(1929-1993) UK art teacher (1960-1985), antique shop proprietor and author whose work, until near the end of his life, was usually for the Young Adult market or for younger children; from the beginning of his career, he was clearly at the forefront of those authors who had begun to respond to their audience's need for more direct confrontation with issues that concerned them. His nonfantastic debut novel, The Machine-Gunners (1975), which formed the ...
Blyton, Enid
(1897-1968) UK author, exclusively for children, and mostly for younger readers; it is estimated that from the beginning of her career in 1922 she may have published as many as 700 separate titles, most of them very short, like the Faraway Tree tales, in which various worlds are accessed entirely by Magic. This vast oeuvre is so overloaded with racist, sexist and class prejudices that most of her titles are more or less unreprintable in their original state. Nor ...
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 ...