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Monday 14 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 7 July 2025
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Taylor, D J
(1960- ) UK literary critic, biographer and author whose novels have normally not ventured into the fantastic; of sf interest, however, is The Windsor Faction (2013), an Alternate History tale set at the end of the 1930s in Britain, with Edward VIII (who in the real world abdicated in 1936) still on the throne (see Jonbar Point). Though affected by a demureness typical of ...
Meyers, Richard S
(1953- ) US author who publishes also as Wade Barker. His sf novels are of relatively little interest, though the Doomstar sequence – Doom Star (1978; rev vt Doomstar 1985) and Doom Star Number Two (1979; rev vt Return to Doomstar 1985) – are moderately entertaining Space Operas. The Book of the Undead is horror [see Checklist]. ...
Edric, Robert
Pseudonym of UK author Gary Edric Armitage (1956- ), who began his career as G E Armitage with a nonfantastic novel, A Season of Peace (1985), continuing for two decades during which at least fifteen more novels, all but the first as Robert Edric, were released. They are all nonfantastic, though The Broken Lands (1992), about the fatal Arctic expedition headed by Sir John Franklin (1786-1847), pushes to the edge of ...
Smith, Greg Leitich
(? - ) US author of books for children and the Young Adult market, beginning with the nonfantastic Ninjas, Piranhas, and Galileo (2003). Of sf interest are Chronal Engine (2012), which features a Time Machine in the protagonists' grandfather's basement, through which abductions have occurred, leading young Max, Emma and Kyle into ...
Dystopias
The word "dystopia" is the commonly used antonym of "eutopia" (see Utopias) and denotes that class of hypothetical societies containing images of worlds worse than our own. An early user of the term was John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), in a parliamentary speech in 1868, but its recent fashionableness probably stems from its use in Quest for Utopia (1952) by Glenn Negley (1907-1988) and J Max Patrick (1908-? ). Anthony ...
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 ...