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Wednesday 11 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 ...
Rogers, John Rankin
(1838-1901) US politician (Governor of Washington 1897-1901) and author of The Graftons; Or, Looking Forward: A Story of Pioneer Life (1893; vt Looking Forward: The Story of an American Farm 1898), a Utopia structured as a reflection upon Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward (1888). [JC]
Sherwood, Martin
(1942-2011) UK author with a PhD in organic chemistry; editor of Chemistry & Industry. His sf novels are Survival (1975) and Maxwell's Demon (1976); in the latter, Aliens invade humans, thus putting them to sleep. [JC]
Gurdon, J E
(1898-1973) UK soldier – as a World War One flying ace he won a DFC – and author, publishing many stories in UK magazines, and two books of some sf interest: Feeding the Wind (1924), featuring a Mad Scientist who almost blows up the world; and a Lost World tale for Young Adult readers, The Secret of the South (1950), featuring a ...
Paterson, Arthur Elliott
(1920-2010) US journalist and author whose Venus: One World Nearer Paradise? (1961) describes the first Space Flight to Venus. [JC]
Clute, John
(1940- ) Canadian critic, editor and author, in the UK from 1969; married to Judith Clute from 1964, partner of Elizabeth Hand since 1996. He began to publish work of genre interest with an sf-tinged poem "Carcajou Lament" in Triquarterly for Winter 1960 [ie Autumn 1959]; he began consistently publishing sf reviews in his "New Fiction" column for the Toronto Star (1966-1967), and later in ...