SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Saturday 14 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: Paul Giamatti
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 ...
Space Command
Juvenile tv series (1953-1954). Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for CBC TV. Produced and directed by Murray Chercover. Writers included Alfred Harris (see Harris Moore). Cast includes Andrew Anthony, Robert Barclay, James Doohan and Austin Willis. Uncertain number of 30-minute episodes. Black and white. / This all but forgotten series featured the adventures of the titular organization, based on ...
Unwin, Stanley
(1911-2002) South African-born broadcaster, comedian and author, in UK from 1914; best-known for his creation of a comically distorted version of English, a gobbledegookish patter not dissimilar to the effect of Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky", which first appeared in Through the Looking-Glass (1871). The Linguistic distortion is superficial but cumulatively compelling; through its mildly antic effect, a sense of an ...
Middleman, The
US tv series (2008). Created by Javier Grillo-Marxuach for ABC Family. Producers include Grillo-Marxuach, Shane Keller, and John Ziffren. Directors include Jeremiah S Chechik and Michael Zinberg. Writers include Grillo-Marxuach, Les McClaine, and Andy Reaser. Cast includes Matt Keeslar as The Middleman, Natalie Morales as Wendy Watson, Brit Morgan as Lacey Thornfield, Mary Pat Gleason as Ida, and Jake Smollett as Noser. 12 one-hour episodes produced. / Based on the ...
Moselli, José
Working name of French author Joseph Moselli (1882-1941), who also wrote as by Pierre Agay, Jack Duridan, Jules Dupont, Explorateur, J Fauconnier, Captain Harry, Jim Houch, Ledam, Jacques Mahan, Nord-55-Est, Jacques North and Pierre de Villebrune; his experience of active service in World War One may have been restricted to the Salonika Front. He concentrated on feuilletons and other periodical works, mostly for Pulp magazines, ...
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 ...