SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Tuesday 13 May 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 12 May 2025
Sponsor of the day: Ted Chiang
Fabian, Stephen E
(1930-2025) American artist, sometimes credited as Steve Fabian or simply Fabian. The self-trained Fabian first worked as an electronic engineer, but he began contributing art to Fanzines in the late 1960s and became a full-time professional artist in 1973. He did a number of covers and interior art for SF Magazines, mostly Amazing, Fantastic, and ...
Lebbon, Tim
(1969- ) UK author who began to publish work of genre interest with "Simon Says" in Psychotrope for March 1994, and who until recent years almost exclusively specialized in Affect Horror and fantasy, though from the first an instinct for worldbuilding has constantly threatened to widen this remit; from early in his career he has tended to set his tales in variously designated (or background) landscapes in the throes of apocalyptic decay, often referring to this ...
Pangborn, Edgar
(1909-1976) US composer and author, son of Georgia Wood Pangborn (1872-1958) and the brother of Mary Pangborn (1907-2003), who were both authors specializing in supernatural fiction; his publishing career began with A-100: A Mystery Story (1930) as by Bruce Harrison, and other non-genre work under various names in various magazines. Only many years later did he publish his first sf story, the famous "Angel's Egg", in Galaxy for June 1951, about a man's ...
Johnstone, William W
(1938-2004) US author identified as the author of over 170 novels since his first in 1980, a few of these being as by William Mason; titles after circa 2003 were seemingly written in collaboration; after his death, his name may have been used as a House Name, though more recently the Johnstone series were taken over by J A Johnstone, writing either as in collaboration with Johnstone, or solo. Johnstone was initially best known for ...
Reyes, Dolores
(1978- ) Argentinian teacher and author whose first novel, Cometierra (2019; trans by Julia Sanchez as Eartheater 2020), demonstrates what to the anglophone commentariat might seem a fruitful juxtaposition of modes of contemporary Fantastika, but which, within a nest of modes not pendant upon English-language conventions (see Genre SF; ...
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 ...