SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Sunday 20 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 16 July 2025
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Williams, Tess
(1954-2025) UK-born teacher, editor and author, in Australia for many years, there receiving a degree in literature from Curtin University and an MA in creative writing from the University of Western Australia. She began publishing work of genre interest with "The Padwan Affair" in She's Fantastical (anth 1995) edited by Judith Raphael Buckrich and Lucy Sussex. Of sf interest are two novels: Map of Power (1996), set mostly in a ...
Thompson, Vance
(1863-1925) US literary critic and author in various genres (including early twentieth-century nutritionism). The Carnival of Destiny (coll of linked stories 1916) depicts a sequence of Reincarnations in terms of fantasy; The Scarlet Iris (1924; vt The Tarnished Woman 1924) is supernatural horror; and The Green Ray (November 1922-March 1923 Munsey's as "The Man of the ...
Molyneux, Peter
(1959- ) UK Game designer and entrepreneur, honoured with an Order of the British Empire for "services to the computer game industry" and inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame, both in 2004, awarded the title of Chevalier by the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2007, and recipient of an honorary degree of Doctor of Science from the UK's Southampton University, also in 2007. Molyneux began designing ...
Clyne, Ronald
(1925-2006) American artist and book designer, sometimes credited in error as Robert Clyne. As a young sf fan in Chicago, Clyne began his career by contributing artwork to some regional fanzines as well as interior illustrations and cartoons to Ray Palmer's magazines Amazing Stories and Fantastic Adventures. After sending a sample of his work to August ...
Rhinehart, Luke
Pseudonym of US teacher and author George Powers Cockcroft (1932-2020), best known for his Dice Man books, a sequence beginning with his first novel, The Dice Man (1971; rev 1983); publicity for the novel wrongly described its author as a psychiatrist. The tale, whose protagonist is named Luke Rhinehart, dramatizes a philosophy of chance – with life decisions made according to a throw of the dice – which, given dramatic fictional form, leads to what might ...
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 ...