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Saturday 14 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 ...
Ziemann, Hans-Heinrich
(1944- ) German author known outside his native land primarily for being the partner of actor Rita Tushingham (1942- ); of sf interest is Explosion im Atomkraftwerk (1976; trans Joachim Neugroschel as Explosion 1978; rev vt as The Accident 1979), a Near Future tale describing the Disaster of a vast and at least ...
Mathematics
The imaginations of pure mathematicians have provided sf writers with important motifs. For example, the notions taken from geometry and topology of a fourth and other Dimensions (which see for a listing of relevant sf stories) have the essential qualities of strangeness and mystery, making them an enjoyable struggle for the untrained intuition to accept. A surprising number of sf writers have been mathematicians, or at least have trained in mathematics; among ...
El-Mohtar, Amal
(1984- ) Canadian author, poet and editor who first began to publish work of genre interest with "The Crow's Caw" in Shimmer magazine for Summer 2006. She co-edited the online genre Poetry magazine Goblin Fruit (34 issues, 2008-2016), initially with Jessica P Wick and latterly with Caitlin Paxson. The Honey Month (coll 2010 chap) assembles honey-themed tales and verse, including one of her three ...
Demon Seed
Film (1977). MGM. Directed by Donald Cammell. Written by Robert Jaffe, Roger O Hirson, based on Demon Seed (1973) by Dean R Koontz. Cast includes Julie Christie, Gerrit Graham, Berry Kroeger and Fritz Weaver. 95 minutes. Colour. / When the supercomputer Proteus IV is switched on it refuses to obey instructions, in the time-honoured tradition (for examples of which, see ...
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 ...