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Thursday 20 August 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.
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Crowley, John
(1942-2026) US teacher and author who also worked in documentary films and television for some time beginning in 1966. His sf novels have had a considerable impact on the field, and his fantasies established him as a figure whose work courteously but deeply stretched the boundaries of genre literature. / His first novel, The Deep (1975), is set on a flat discworld (see Flat Earth) resting on a pillar that extends beyond measurement into the ...
Expanse, The
US tv series (2015-2022). Penguin in a Parka, Alcon Television Group, SeanDanielCo (seasons 1-3), SyFy Network (seasons 1-3), Just So (seasons 4-6), Hivemind (seasons 4-6), Amazon Studios (seasons 4-6). Created by Mark Fergus and Hank Ostby, based on The Expanse (2011-2021) by Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck writing together as James S A Corey. Various writers and directors. Cast includes Frankie Adams, ...
Robinson, Philip Bedford
(1926-1986) UK author and computer programmer who worked in India 1950-1958. The deracinated protagonist of Masque of a Savage Mandarin (1969; vt Masque of a Savage Mandarin: A Comedy of Horrors 1974) takes symbolic revenge upon the world via the systematic destruction – by electromagnetic Rays resembling microwave radiation – of a hapless, innocent neighbour's brain (see Horror in SF). In the ...
Moriarty, Chris
(1968- ) US author whose Spin sequence of high-tech Space Operas – comprising Spin State (2003), Spin Control (2006), which won the Philip K Dick Award in 2007, and Ghost Spin (2013) – expertly embeds genuinely hard Hard SF concepts in a narrative dominated by a fast-mouthed female protagonist named Li with ...
Heroes
Gilgamesh may be the first named hero in what we think of as the Western World. Like him, most heroes in the cultures of the West are passionate, often rebellious, defenders of and bringers of relief to their homelands, and until perhaps Boudicca (floruit 60-61 CE) always male. They often descended from Gods (see Gods and Demons) but are distinct from them, like Hercules; even Prometheus, the paradigm culture hero in the Western tradition, is not a ...
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 ...