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 ...
Dan, Uri
(1937-2006) Israeli photographer, journalist and author, long identified as an advocate of Ariel Sharon's understanding of the Middle East nightmare; his Ultimatum: Pu 94 (1977) with Peter Mann is a Technothriller set in his home territories. [JC]
Locke, George
(1936-2019) UK author, one-time pharmacist, antiquarian bookseller and bibliographer. He began publishing sf with "The Human Seed" in Authentic Science Fiction for October 1957, and under the name Gordon Walters published a number of sf stories in the 1960s, but no sf books; his novel, Pattern of Terror (1987) as by Ayresome Johns, is a detective tale involving an "impossible crime" and the supernatural. He also published several ...
Gandalf Award
An Award created by Lin Carter to honour Fantasy authors, voted and administered in parallel with the annual Hugo Awards and presented at the Hugo ceremony (an invariable feature of Worldcon). The Grand Master of Fantasy award, for life achievement in fantasy, was given each year from 1974 to 1981; dates below are the dates of presentation. Additionally, ...
Hollister, Bernard C
(1938-2000) US teacher, academic – a charter faculty member in 1986 in the Social Science and History Team at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy in Aurora, Illinois – and author who began to publish work of genre interest with the SF in the Classroom text Grokking the Future: Science Fiction in the Classroom (1973) with Deane C Thompson (see Grok). He also edited and introduced two 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 ...