SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Saturday 15 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.
Site updated on 10 August 2026
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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 resting on a pillar that extends beyond measurement into the circumambient galactic Deep, in which very few stars ...
Bickham, Jack M
(1930-1997) US author who began publishing sf with Kane's Odyssey (1976) as by Jeff Clinton, and who later wrote two sf novels under his own name. ARIEL (1984) posits a Computer whose AI is both charming and alarming. Day Seven (1988) is a Technothriller. [JC]
Tomlinson, Patrick S
(? - ) US author who began publishing work of genre interest with "Dig Up the Vote" in Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine #47 circa August/September 2010, followed by two Ties to the fantasy Videogame Abyss Walker. His first solo series, the Young Adult Children of Lost Earth sequence ...
Méliès, Georges
(1861-1938) French theatre and film director and entrepreneur. A natural showman, Méliès began his theatrical career as a conjurer, designing his own trick gadgets, against the wishes of his family, whose wealth came from manufacturing shoes. In 1888, his father's death allowed him to sell his interest in the firm, helping to provide him with the finances to buy the Théâtre Robert-Houdin, and his magic shows there became famous. In 1896, ...
Boyett, Steven R
(1960- ) US screenwriter and author whose first novel, Ariel (1983; text restored 2009), is a fantasy, along with its direct sequel in the Ariel sequence, Elegy Beach (2009); his second novel, The Architect of Sleep (1986), is an sf tale set in a Parallel World occupied by an intricately and plausibly depicted species which has evolved (see Evolution) ...
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 ...