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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 ...
SETI
Term coined outside the sf genre, standing for Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence – carried out by passive observation, typically using radio telescopes in hope of detecting Alien transmissions or Communications. A notable real-world effort was the 1960 observational Project Ozma founded by Frank Drake (1930-2022), sited at the US National Radio Astronomy Observatory (Green Bank, West Virginia) and discussed by Martin ...
Swierczynski, Duane
(1972- ) US journalist, Comics writer and author, who began to publish work of genre interest with "Life during Death" in Dark Planet for 6 July 1998. He has almost exclusively concentrated on nonfiction, mostly on criminals and criminality, a focus that dominates his fiction, including the Charlie Hardie sequence beginning with Fun and Games (2011) [none of this listed below]. Between 2007 and 2017 he was active in ...
Chatelain, Clara De
(1807-1876) UK author and translator, born of an French emigré father and English mother; exceedingly prolific, she published poetry and other work from 1826 under he own name and as by Leopold Wray, Leigh Santa Croce or Leopoldine Ziska. Most of her work was for children, many of them fantasy, like her first, The Silver Swan (1847 chap). Of sf interest is The Sedan-Chair, and Sir Wilfred's Seven Flights (coll 1866; vt Sir Wilfred's Seven Flights ...
Rickman, Gregg
(? - ) US author and critic who conducted illuminating Interviews with Philip K Dick – one late magazine appearance being "Piper in the Woods" (November 1990 Argosy) – and has published three volumes of this material, beginning with Philip K. Dick: In His Own Words (1984; rev 1988). The third of these, ...
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 ...