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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 ...
Ennes, Hiron
(? - ) US musician and author whose first novel Leech (2022), set in the distant Near Future, in a fastness (see Zone) known as the Interprovincial Medical Institute, nerve centre for a kind of distributed Hive Mind comprised of the world's remaining medical doctors, whose/its primary mission is to protect Homo sapiens from the ...
Crofton, Francis Blake
(1842-1911) Irish-born librarian and author, in Canada from 1864 (with a decade in the US) until his retirement as librarian of the Nova Scotia provincial legislature 1in 1906 and his subsequent move to England. His nonfiction work in bibliography is of some importance; of his fiction, he is of moderate sf interest for two volumes of Tall Tales [see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below]. The Major's Big-Talk Stories ...
Onions, Oliver
(1873-1961) UK commercial artist, illustrator and author, active in various genres since 1899; married to Berta Ruck from 1909 until his death; he served in the Royal Engineers during World War One; in 1918 he legally changed his name to George Oliver but continued to write as Onions. He is best remembered for powerfully disturbing tales of ghosts and supernatural horrors, such as The Beckoning Fair One (in ...
X-Ray Spex
UK punk act, founded 1976 and led by vocalist and songwriter Poly Styrene (Marianne Joan Elliott-Said) (1957-2011); the other members were guitarist Jak Airport (Jack Stafford) (circa 1955-2004), bassist Paul Dean, drummer Paul "B. P." Hurding and saxophonist Lora Logic (Susan Whitby) (1960- ), the last leaving after the first single, to be replaced by Steve "Rudi" Thompson. / That first single was "Oh Bondage! Up Yours!" (1977), opening demurely with ...
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 ...