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Monday 16 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 ...
Howes, Margaret
(1927-2008) US sf fan and author of The Wrong World (2000), in which a deracinated young man seeks his father on another planet, which may not be the right world either, and which (see Equipoise) may be a projection. [JC]
High Concept
Item of critical Terminology coined in the later twentieth century to cover works, usually in Cinema and Television, that are easily summarized by a single-sentence – even a single-phrase – premise or pitch. More recently in the 2020s, the term has been increasingly adopted as a label to describe fiction by authors whose narratives are shaped by a strong foregrounded premise: a definition ...
Benham, Charles
(1870-1942) UK barrister, famous in his day, and author of The Fourth Napoleon: A Romance (1897), a Near Future tale in which the eponymous ruler becomes ensnared in romance, fatally. [JC]
Bijo to Ekitai-ningen
Film (1958; vt The H-Man; vt Beautiful Women and the Hydrogen Man). Toho. Director Ishirō Honda. Written by Takeshi Kimura, based on a story by Hideo Kaijo. Cast includes Akihiko Hirata, Kenji Sahara, Koreya Senda and Yumi Shirakawa. 87 minutes, cut to 79 minutes. Colour. / This Japanese film is, coincidentally, similar to The Blob (also 1958) but is more ingenious and sinister. Fishermen examining a drifting freighter ...
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 ...