SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Sunday 15 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: John Howard
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 ...
Kiernan, Caitlín R
(1964- ) Irish-born Comics writer and author, in the US from childhood, who began publishing work of genre interest with "Persephone" for Aberrations in 1995, and the script for a Neil Gaiman spin-off, The Dreaming (1997-2001). Most of her work has been variously designated as dark fantasy or cosmic horror, but intermittently throughout her prolific career there is a sense that – ...
Tolman, Edward C
(1886-1959) US psychologist, a sometimes reluctant associate of B F Skinner, whose theories of behaviourism seemed excessively reductive; he is best known for his successful suit against the University of California for attempting to fire him because of his refusal to sign a McCarthy-era loyalty oath. His measured assessments of the relationship between Psychology and the course of history appear in Drives Toward War ...
Holmes, Jeffrey
(1934-2007) UK-born author and journalist, long resident in Canada, whose Near Future sf novel, Farewell to Nova Scotia (1974), makes ironical and Satirical use of an unintended nuclear blast, a Disaster which cuts Nova Scotia off from the mainland, turning it into an Island full of caricatured disputants, at which point the narrative becomes jocosely ...
Space: 1999
UK tv series (1975-1977). A Gerry Anderson Production for ITC. Created by Gerry Anderson and Sylvia Anderson. Producers Sylvia Anderson (season 1), Fred Freiberger (season 2). Executive producer Gerry Anderson. Directors included Ray Austin, Lee H Katzin, Charles Crichton, David Tomblin, Val Guest and Tom Clegg. Story consultant Christopher Penfold (1941-2024). Special effects: ...
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 ...