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Tuesday 8 September 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 7 September 2026
Sponsor of the day: The Telluride Institute
Vasquez Gilliland, Raquel
(? - ) US poet and author, whose first collection, Dirt and Honey (coll 2018) exuberantly interweaves Mexican traditional folktales, mythology, personal narratives, some of the longer poems providing a narrative beat characteristic of Fantastika. She is of sf interest for her first novel, the Young Adult Sia Martinez and the Moonlit Beginning of Everything (2020), ...
Spence, Catherine Helen
(1825-1910) Scottish-born author, in Australia from 1839, where she was a central literary figure for more than half a century; her first novel, Clara Morison: A Tale of South Australia during the Gold Fever (1854), was the first novel by an Australian woman to be set in Australia; An Agnostic's Progress from the Known to the Unknown (1884) is an afterlife allegory. She wrote two works of sf interest. Handfasted (written circa 1879; 1984), a ...
Rubinstein, Paul
(1935- ) Polish-born author, in US from before World War Two, son of the pianist Arthur Rubinstein (1887-1982); author mostly of cookbooks, though The Petrodollar Takeover (1975) with Peter Tanous is of sf interest as a Near Future tale in which Saudi Arabia attempts to stabilize its precarious relationship with Iran by buying stock in General Motors. [JC]
Kirk, Tim
(1947- ) US artist. While attending California State University, Long Beach, in the 1960s, Kirk became an enthusiastic member of the science fiction community and began contributing artwork to Fanzines, including a number of first-page cartoons that are credited as cover art for numerous issues of Locus. From the start, he displayed a knack for playful renderings of familiar figures from ...
Brown, Harrison
(1917-1986) US scientist and author whose nonfiction The Challenge of Man's Future (1954) combines demographical, ecological and energy concerns in a pioneering work of great admonitory influence. His sf novel, The Cassiopeia Affair (1968) with Chloe Zerwick, treats fictionally the same problems through a story about a possibly bogus message from the stars that may keep mankind from destroying itself in a terminal conflagration. ...
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 ...