SF Encyclopedia Home Page
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
Sponsor of the day: The Telluride Institute
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 ...
Bartlett, Mike
(1980- ) UK playwright, at least three of whose plays have sf elements. The 1968-2525 timespan of Earthquakes in London (performed 4 August 2010 Cottesloe Theatre, London; 2010) includes realist historical scenes and events in both contemporary and Near Future London, as well as visions of a Ruined Earth, scenes set in the future comprising enacted scenes as well as ...
Edelman, Maurice
(1911-1975) Welsh politician, Labour member of Parliament from 1945 to 1975, and author in various genres, whose A Call on Kuprin (1959) sets a strongly conceived drama of Near Future science and politics in Russia; as a play, it had a successful Broadway run in 1961. [JC]
Cass, De Lysle Ferrée
(1887-1973) US author who published fairly widely in American Pulp magazines of the early twentieth century, mostly concentrating on fantasy, and beginning with "Oahula the Carnivorous" (March 1913 All-Story). Of sf interest is his authorship of the eighth of the Airship Boys sequence, The Airship Boys in the Great War; Or, the Rescue of Bob Russell (1915) as by H L Sayler, ...
Crouch, Blake
(1978- ) US screenwriter and author whose earlier work, like his first novel Desert Places (2004), combined thriller and horror modes, though only with hints of the fantastic. He is perhaps best known for the Wayward Pines sequence comprising Pines (2012), Wayward (2013) and The Last Town (2014), made into the Television series Wayward Pines (2015-2016) produced by ...
Nicholls, Peter
(1939-2018) Australian editor and author, primarily a critic and historian of sf through his creation and editing of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction [see below]; resident in the UK 1970-1988, in Australia from 1988; worked as an academic in English literature (1962-1968, 1971-1977), scripted television documentaries, was a Harkness Fellow in Film-making (1968-1970) in the USA, worked as a publisher's editor (1982-1983), often broadcast film and book reviews on BBC Radio from 1974 and ...