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Tuesday 10 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.
Site updated on 9 February 2026
Sponsor of the day: Andy Richards of Cold Tonnage Books
Carver, Jeffrey A
(1949-2026) US author who began publishing sf with "... Of No Return" in Fiction Magazine for 1974. His first novel, Seas of Ernathe (1976), which serves as an introduction to the loose Star Rigger sequence of Space Operas, showed early signs of a love of plot and thematic complexity which would take him some time, and several novels, to control. The continuation, Star Rigger's Way (1978), for instance, combines quest ...
Editorial Practices
In Notes on Content we briefly describe the principles governing the encyclopedia's construction, and the kinds of information which may be found here. We have tried throughout to present this material as clearly as possible, but some pointers may be helpful, as below. For information on the bibliographic Checklists now appearing at the ends of entries, see Editorial Practices: Checklists. / ...
Peck, Vernon
(? - ) US author of a Near Future Sex novel, Super Sex Captain (1969). [JC]
Watchers, The
Short UK film (1969). BFI Production Board. Written and directed by Dick Foster. Cast includes Joanne Harding, Rosemary Lord, Roland MacLeod and Helen Sorokou. 27 minutes. Black and white. / Sixteen-year-old Julie (Lord) wanders away from a picnic with her friends to find a lost Cat, and is led to its hiding place by a young child. The child then disappears in a vortex of light. Soon afterwards Julie begins hearing ...
Edwards, Rob
(? - ) UK author, resident in Finland for some time, whose first novel, The Ascension Machine (2020), is an exuberant Young Adult Space Opera riff on a range of story opportunities from the SF Megatext, opening the Justice Academy sequence. The young hero cons himself into a school (see Education in 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 ...