SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Wednesday 9 July 2025
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 7 July 2025
Sponsor of the day: Andy Richards of Cold Tonnage Books
Reid, T Mayne
(1818-1883) Irish-born UK author, in the US 1840-1849 and 1867-1870, setting several of his most successful novels there, including The Headless Horseman: A Strange Tale of Texas (March 1865-October 1866 Bentley's Magazine; 1866 2vols). One of the earliest examples of the Western – with Comanches on the warpath, shoot-outs, ambushes, brawls, lynchings, and a nearly invulnerable hero sporting a secret identity – Headless Horseman is also a ghost story, but ...
Lohrman, Paul
House Name used on the Ziff-Davis magazines by Richard Shaver, Paul W Fairman and perhaps others on seven stories 1950-1953. "The World of the Lost" (March 1950 Fantastic Adventures) has been definitely attributed to Shaver. [PN] links / ...
Rojas, Agustín de
Working name of Agustín de Rojas Anido (1949-2011), considered one of the most relevant sf Cuban authors. A biologist by training, having pursued a career in sport medicine, he dedicated his life to teaching (mostly theatre) and writing. He has an extensive and eclectic oeuvre. / His literary debut was the novel Espiral ["Spiral"] (1982), which in 1980 was awarded the prestigious Cuban Premio David ["David Award"] for new, unpublished ...
Lightspeed
US professional Online Magazine initially devoted exclusively to science fiction, published by Sean Wallace via Prime Books until December 2011, and edited by John Joseph Adams, who also took over as publisher from January 2012 at which time it also absorbed Fantasy Magazine and made fantasy fiction part of its content. It has appeared monthly as an ...
Superhero 2044
Role Playing Game (1977). Gamescience. Designed by Donald Saxman. / Superhero 2044 is the earliest example of a professionally produced Role Playing Game based on the mythology of the Superhero. (A first edition was self-published in 1977 as Superhero '44, inspired by an unreleased game created by John M Ford.) Its most ...
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 ...