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Sunday 15 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 ...
Gillett, Stephen L
(1953- ) US author and science writer who began to publish professionally with "Mining the Moon" in Analog for November 1983, the first of his many science-fact essays which appeared in that magazine until 2010. He also wrote articles in similar vein for Amazing Stories from 1985 to 1995, and began to publish short sf as by Lee Goodloe with "Sunstat" (October 1988 Analog) in collaboration ...
Johns, W E
(1893-1968) UK air pilot, in active service with the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force throughout World War One until shot down and captured on 16 September 1918, and later author, who began producing boys' action adventures in 1930. His normal byline was Captain W E Johns (a rank he did not in reality attain, having risen no higher than Flying Officer). His total output exceeded 200 volumes, his popularity exceeding any other twentieth-century British ...
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 ...
Matthews, Ronald
(1903-1967) UK journalist, noted foreign correspondent, and author of a Dystopia, Red Sky at Night (1951), a Near Future tale in which a leftist tyranny is overthrown by a Roman Catholic crusade. [JC]
Clute, John
(1940- ) Canadian critic, editor and author, in the UK from 1969; married to Judith Clute from 1964, partner of Elizabeth Hand since 1996. He began to publish work of genre interest with an sf-tinged poem "Carcajou Lament" in Triquarterly for Winter 1960 [ie Autumn 1959]; he began consistently publishing sf reviews in his "New Fiction" column for the Toronto Star (1966-1967), and later in ...