SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Friday 11 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 7 July 2025
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Mullen, Thomas
(1974- ) US author whose first novel, The Last Town on Earth (2006), clearly references but does not directly employ sf topoi in its depiction of the fate of a small town on the Pacific Rim which, faced with a dread Pandemic (in this case the "Spanish" flu), totally isolates itself from the rest of the world (see Horror in SF; Keep). An intruding soldier, unconsciously ...
Meade, L T
Working name of UK author Elizabeth Thomasina Meade Smith (1844-1914), now best remembered for her numerous and sometimes inventive books for girls, but some of whose romances of detection and sedition are of sf interest, though the sometimes-cited John Bell sequence – assembled as A Master of Mysteries (coll of linked stories June-November 1897 Cassell's Magazine; 1898) with Robert Eustace – is not, as the mysteries are ...
Multi User Dungeon
Term used to describe a type of Videogame in which many players adopt the roles of characters they have created in the same persistent Online World. Many variants exist, but the most common forms are those which emphasize exploration and adventure in the manner of a combat-oriented Computer Role Playing Game and those which are focused on social interaction and enabling their users to ...
AE – The Canadian Science Fiction Review
Canadian professional Online Magazine, originally downloadable in various formats but now only available online. It was published quarterly from Winter (October) 20100 until Summer 2016 when it went into hiatus. It was revived in 2019 as a cumulative Webzine. Co-founded and edited by D F McCourt with Editorial Director Helen Michaud, Toronto. AE – the title is taken from the initials of the ...
Ryner, Han
Pseudonym of Algerian-born French philosopher and author Jacques Élie Henri Ambroise Ner (1861-1938), which he adopted in 1898, after having published fairly widely under his own name. His philosophical position, as articulated in many articles and books, combined epicurean stoicism about the purpose of life with anarchist political views which led to his taking a pacifist stand in World War One, a position reflected in Les Pacifiques ["The ...
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 ...