SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Sunday 8 February 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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Sallis, James
(1944-2026) US musician, poet and author, briefly active in New Worlds during its Michael Moorcock-directed New-Wave phase; he began to publish work of genre interest in this context with "Kazoo" (August 1967 New Worlds) and co-edited the magazine 1968-1969. His clearly acknowledged models in the French avant garde and the gnomic brevity of much of his work ...
Mayne, Andrew
(1973- ) US stage magician and author, probably best known in the former capacity; his fiction is various, some of it comprising nonfantastic thrillers [not listed below]. He is of sf interest for three series: the Chronological Man sequence beginning with The Chronological Man: The Monster in the Mist (2011 ebook), adventures in Steampunk-inflected venues; the Station Breaker sequence beginning with ...
Noble, William
(? -? ) UK author of Consternation in Mars: Dispatches of Faynt Dams, Ex Mock M.P. (1932), a Satire on Near Future England conducted in an eighteenth-century idiom; War is imminent. [JC]
Star Trek: Picard
US tv series (2020-current). CBS Television Studios, Roddenberry Entertainment, Secret Hideout. Created by Kirsten Beyer, Michael Chabon and Akiva Goldsman. Showrunner Michael Chabon. Directed by Doug Aarniokoski, Chabon, Hanelle M Culpepper, Jonathan Frakes, Akiva Goldsman and Maja Vrvilo. Written by Kirsten Beyer, Chabon, James Duff, Akiva Goldsman, Samantha Humphrey, Alex Kurtzman, Ayelet Waldman and Nick Zayas. Cast (four episodes or more) includes ...
White, James
(1928-1999) UK author from Ulster who initially worked for various Belfast tailoring firms, as assistant manager of a department store, and from 1965 in various capacities for an aircraft company, ultimately as publicity officer 1968-1984; this mixed occupational experience is reflected in several of his works. His visible involvement with Fandom began with Slant (1948-1953); his articles appeared in many other ...
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 ...