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Friday 18 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.
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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 ...
Babits, Mihály
(1883-1941) Hungarian editor, translator (from English and German) and author, best known for his poetry, the finest example of which is probably the autobiographical Jönas konyve ["The Book of Jonah"] (1938). His sf novel, A Gólyakalifa ["The Caliph's Stork"] (1918; trans anon as The Nightmare 1966), is of interest in its depiction of a split personality. A utopian novel, ...
Cunningham, Scott
(1956-1993) US author of many popular works on Wicca, and of Operation: Death Ray (1982), an unassuming sf adventure featuring the eponymous Ray. [JC]
Paton, John
Pseudonym of UK author Frederick John Alford Bateman (1921-2004), whose unremarkable Space Operas for Robert Hale Limited comprise Leap to the Galactic Core (1978), Proteus (1978) and The Sea of Rings (1979). [JC]
Wnuk-Lipiński, Edmund
(1944-2015) Polish sociologist, futurologist, and author whose contributions to sf are closely associated with the social and political landscape of late Communist-era Poland. In the Polish sf landscape, he is best known for the Apostezjon trilogy, a sequence of sociological Dystopias that critically dissect the mechanisms of authoritarian control, ideological conformity, and systemic inertia. Educated in sociology, Wnuk-Lipiński held academic posts in ...
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 ...