SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Thursday 17 July 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 16 July 2025
Sponsor of the day: Andy Richards of Cold Tonnage Books
Williams, Tess
(1954-2025) UK-born teacher, editor and author, in Australia for many years, there receiving a degree in literature from Curtin University and an MA in creative writing from the University of Western Australia. She began publishing work of genre interest with "The Padwan Affair" in She's Fantastical (anth 1995) edited by Judith Raphael Buckrich and Lucy Sussex. Of sf interest are two novels: Map of Power (1996), set mostly in a ...
Skaife, S H
(1889-1976) UK-born entomologist and author, in South Africa from 1913; most of his work comprises either technical studies or descriptions of the natural world for general readers. Of sf interest is The Strange Old Man (coll of linked stories 1930), tales in which the Drug-enabled Miniaturization of two children allows them, under the guidance of the eponymous scientist, to tour the air, the land, and ...
Szal, Jeremy
(1995- ) Australian editor, politician and author who began to publish work of genre interest with "Aliens Ate My Anti-Grav Speeder" in Robot and Raygun for April 2014. Although his first novel Stormblood (2020) may accurately be described as Military SF set in an interstellar Space Opera venue, the heart of the tale revolves more intimately around the protagonist and his companions' ...
Flinn, Denny Martin
(1947-2007) US author of a Star Trek Tie, Star Trek: The Fearful Summons (1995); he also co-scripted, with Nicholas Meyer, the screenplay for Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991). [JC/DRL]
Kalfař, Jaroslav
(1988- ) Czech-born author, in USA from the age of fifteen. His first novel, Spaceman of Bohemia (2017), initially depicts an abstractly conceived journey through the inner Solar System, narrated with an indifferent hauteur as to any literal understanding of the SF Megatext typical of the Mainstream Writer of SF; but in this case savingly aerated by ...
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 ...