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Sunday 23 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 ...
Levinson, Leonard
(1935- ) US author of sf novels under other names: contributions to the Butler series of Sex-charged Technothrillers beginning with Killer Satellites (1980) under the House Name Philip Kirk; and The Camp (1977) as by Jonathan Trask. [JC]
Childers, Erskine
(1870-1922) UK advocate of Irish nationalism, military theoretician and author, who lived both in the UK and Ireland. His Future War novel, The Riddle of the Sands: A Record of Secret Service Recently Achieved (1903), describes an exploratory sea journey into the Frisian Islands along the German coast, where its adventurous protagonists uncover secret plans for a German Invasion of the UK using shallow-draft vessels; ...
McCutchan, Philip
(1920-1996) UK author, a Sandhurst attendee (though not graduate, as war service took him in 1939), responsible for work in various genres, including a number of historical adventures as by Duncan MacNeil. Of his numerous thrillers, most of which occupy territories subjacent to the James Bond books, several are sf, the majority of these in the twenty-two volumes of his Commander Shaw series, beginning with Gibraltar Road (1960) and ending with Burnout ...
Hiller, Neil W
(1947-1989) US author of some works of sf interest, all in collaboration with his wife, B B Hiller, who see for details. [JC]
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 ...