SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Saturday 8 February 2025
Welcome to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Fourth Edition. Some sample entries appear below. Click here for the Introduction; here for the masthead; here for 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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Sarrantonio, Al
(1952-2025) US editor and author who began publishing work of genre interest with "Ahead of the Joneses" in Asimov's for March 1979. Much of his work was horror, sometimes tinged with sf (see Horror in SF), including his first novel, The Worms (1985), a Gothic tale set in Massachusetts with hints of H P Lovecraft; and the Equipoisal Moonbane ...
Connolly, John
(1968- ) Irish journalist and author, active from the mid-1990s, partner of Jennifer Ridyard, with whom he has collaborated. He is best known for his Charlie Parker noir crime thrillers beginning with Every Dead Thing (1999), featuring an ex-police detective, normally in private practice after the devastating family tragedy that initiates the series; his unusual methods are seen as suspicious and possibly ...
Hassler, Donald M
(1937- ) US academic and scholar of sf, based at Kent State University, Ohio. Hassler was President of the Science Fiction Research Association 1985-1986, and became managing editor of the journal Extrapolation with the Summer 1986 issue, co-editor with the Winter 1987 issue, and editor with the Spring 1990 issue, ending his active editorial association with the journal in ...
Cox, James
(? - ) US filmmaker and author, of sf interest for his first novel, Grand Theft AI (2024), which could be described as a retro-Cyberpunk spoof, set in an exaggerated rendering of Near Future California. A comic heist of precious data governs the plot. [JC]
Hornblower in Space
Sea stories of the Napoleonic war era, especially the Horatio Hornblower sequence by C S Forester, have long appealed to sf fans. Obvious parallels with Spaceship voyages include the frail and crowded vessel in a lethal environment, an assumed need for tight naval discipline, and a profusion of technical Terminology. Walt Willis in his column "Fanorama" ...
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 ...