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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 ...
Newcomb, Simon
(1835-1909) Canadian-born author, in the USA from 1853, of texts on and studies in Astronomy and Mathematics. In his Edisonade, His Wisdom, the Defender: A Story (1900), future historians tell how a professor discovers a limitless Power Source in 1941, is responsible for the Invention of an ...
Romilus, Arn
A Curtis Warren House Name used by Brian Holloway for one novel and by Denis Hughes for two. [JC/DRL]
Vortex Science Fiction
US Digest-size magazine, two issues, May and October 1953, published by Specific Fiction Corp, New York; edited by Chester Whitehorn. Vortex was designed to showcase a large number of very short stories in each issue, achieving this goal in #2, but the idea did not prove popular. However, not all of the nine new writers who made their debut in the second issue were doomed to remain unknown: Marion Zimmer Bradley had ...
Elliott, Elton T
(1956- ) US author, editor, reviewer and publisher whose solo sf debut was "Lighting Candles on the River Styx" (March 1991 Amazing). His early novel-length work appeared in the 1980s in collaboration with Richard E Geis, under the pseudonym Richard Elliott (whom see for discussion of these books). Written in collaboration with Doug Odell, Elliott's Prince of Europe ...
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 ...