SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Monday 16 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 16 March 2026
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Dietz, William C
(1945-2026) US author who began to publish sf with War World (1986; vt Galactic Bounty 1997), the first volume of his Sam McCade sequence of sf adventures about an interstellar bounty hunter, which continued with Imperial Bounty (1988) and two further titles. The galactic venue of the series exhibits some interesting kinks, and McCade himself gradually gains individuality. Although the angle of approach differs – the protagonist this time ...
Leeson, Robert
(1928-2013) UK editor and author, active from the mid-1940s, who began publishing his books for children, in which he has since specialized, with Beyond the Dragon Prow (1973), an historical romance. Of sf interest is the Time Rope sequence – Time Rope (1986), Three Against the World (1986), The Metro Gangs Attack (1986) and At War with Tomorrow (1986) – in which a sharp social awareness of the contemporary ...
Chatterton, E Keble
(1878-1944) UK author, active from around the turn of the century, best known for nonfiction works on maritime history, and for his dramatic depictions of naval warfare; he commanded a navy mine-sweeper during World War One. Of his fiction, the Z-Rays sequence – comprising Through Sea and Air (1929), Adventurers of the Air (1930) and The Sky Riders (1930) – is of most sf interest, as a European ...
Zhemaitis, Sergei
(1908-1987) Russian author who began to publish work of genre interest with the juvenile Miniaturization story Alesha Perets v strane gomunkulusov (1959 chap). His Young Adult tale, Vechnyĭ Veter: Fantasticheskaíà Povest' (in Mir priklyuchenij. Al'manakh 13, anth 1967; 1970; trans Gladys Evans as Eternal Wind 1975), is set ...
Fantasy Entries
Previous editions of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction included a number of entries for authors whose genre output consists entirely of indisputable Fantasy, or whose few short sf stories would not have warranted an entry in the absence of more substantial works of fantasy, Horror or supernatural fiction in their bibliographies. Most such entries – excepting authors like J R R Tolkien ...
Robinson, Roger
(1943- ) UK computer programmer, bibliographer and publisher, active in UK Fandom for many years. The Writings of Henry Kenneth Bulmer (1983 chap; rev 1984 chap) is an exhaustive Bibliography of one of the most prolific sf writers, Kenneth Bulmer, and Who's Hugh?: An SF Reader's Guide to Pseudonyms (1987) is similarly exhaustive in its ...