SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Tuesday 10 March 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 March 2026
Sponsor of the day: Andy Richards of Cold Tonnage Books
Russell, William Moy
(1925-2006) UK biologist and author who began publishing work of genre interest with "The Three Brothers" in the London Observer for December 1954, but who concentrated on his scientific career after that point. His The Barber of Aldebaran (1995) is a spoof Space Opera in the first part of which the representative of Robotics Inc is called in to the planet Aldebaran, whose Robots have begun to malfunction; he then ...
Willis, Walt
(1919-1999) Irish civil servant, editor and author, one of the most notable members of Irish and world Fandom, whose main period of activity ran from 1948 to the mid-1960s. He co-edited and wrote for two classic Fanzines, Slant and Hyphen, and was a highly regarded columnist under the regular title "The Harp That Once or Twice" in Quandry and other fanzines ...
Takami Kōshun
Working name of Hiroharu Takami (1969- ) a Japanese author whose sole work to date has been much refashioned and adapted across several media. A graduate of Osaka University's Literature department, where he specialized in the aesthetics of fine arts, Takami worked for several years as a journalist for the provincial newspaper Shikoku Shinbun. His debut novel, the Satire Battle Royale (1999) was ...
Lee, Mike
(1962- ) UK author who began publishing work of genre interest with "High Heels from Hell" in Forbidden Acts (anth 1995) edited by Nancy A Collins, Edward E Kramer and Martin H Greenberg; most of his career has been focused on the Warhammer Wargame universe, beginning with Warhammer: The Daemon's Curse (2005) with Dan ...
Gull, Cyril Ranger
Working name of UK journalist and author Arthur Edward Ranger Gull (1875-1923) who added Cyril to his name at the beginning of his career; moderately prolific under his own name, though he was also well-known under his pseudonym Guy Thorne; he began to publish sf with "The Automaton" in The Ludgate for January 1900 with Reginald Bacchus (1874-1945), one of whose later romans à clef features an identifiable Gull in scandalous situations. It may be because he did indeed lead ...
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 ...