SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Thursday 20 August 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.
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Crowley, John
(1942-2026) US teacher and author who also worked in documentary films and television for some time beginning in 1966. His sf novels have had a considerable impact on the field, and his fantasies established him as a figure whose work courteously but deeply stretched the boundaries of genre literature. / His first novel, The Deep (1975), is set on a flat discworld (see Flat Earth) resting on a pillar that extends beyond measurement into the ...
Rich, Nathaniel
(1980- ) US author who began to publish work of genre interest with "Hermie" in I'm With the Bears (anth 2011) edited by Mark Martin. His first novel, The Mayor's Tongue (2008), a surreal fantasy involving intersecting quests in search of gnostically elusive figures, has been likened to the early work of Thomas Pynchon. His first sf novel, Odds Against Tomorrow (2013), is a ...
Henley, Carra Depuy
(1869-1905) US author of A Man from Mars (1901 chap), in which a Utopia on Mars is described, in terms involving some mysticism and some cod science regarding levitation. [JC]
Morris, Dave
(1957- ) UK author who began to publish genre work with Gamebooks mostly written for children, the first being Crypt of the Vampire (1984), opening the Golden Dragon Fantasy Gamebooks sequence. Of direct sf interest is Dinobot War (1985 chap), the first of five Transformers Adventure Game Books Ties to the Transformers franchise. Morris has also ...
Givins, Robert C
(1845-1915) Canadian-born real estate developer (including a castle for himself in South Chicago) and author, in US from an early age; his romances were sometimes published as by Snivig C Trebor (his name spelled backwards). His one sf novel, A Thousand Miles an Hour (1913), might stand as a compendium of misunderstood science – examples being the concept of an aeroplane whose vertical screw allows it to remain still while the world turns, and the ...
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 ...