SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Wednesday 9 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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Morwood, Peter
Pseudonym of UK author Robert Peter Smith (1956-2025), educated at Queen's University, Belfast; married to Diane Duane in 1987 and resident with her in the Republic of Ireland for many years until his death. His competent but routine solo adventure Fantasies fall into several series. The Japanese-mythology-tinged Alban Saga began with his debut novel The Horse Lord (1983), followed by The Demon Lord ...
Brenton, Howard
(1942- ) UK screenwriter and playwright, active from the late 1960s, his dramas often being Satires focused on social, economic and political issues in the UK, frequently conveyed through estranged pantomime routines as evolved from Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956), some of whose plays he has adapted for British performance. Singletons of sf interest include ...
Warren, Kaaron
(1965- ) Australian author, best known for supernatural horror tales like her first novel Slights (2009), which won a Ditmar Award for best novel. She began publishing work of genre interest with "The Blue Stream" in Aurealis for October 1994; this tale was assembled with other early work as The Grinding House (coll 2005; vt The Glass Woman 2007). Further collections ...
Wilde, Oscar
(1854-1900) Irish journalist, playwright, poet and author, mostly in UK from 1874; noted for the witty epigrams which characterize much of his writing. Among his most enduring works are his social comedy plays, such as Lady Windermere's Fan (first performed 20 February 1892; 1893) and especially The Importance of Being Earnest (first performed 14 February 1895; 1898). Of primary genre interest is his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (July 1890 ...
Way, Peter
(1936-1991) UK author whose first novel, The Kretzmer Syndrome (1968), is a Near-Future tale set in a bleak conformist UK susceptible to the theories of the eponymous scientist, who articulates Psychohistory laws that risk translating the country into a rigid Dystopia enabled by the Kretzmer Syndrome, which saps free will. Sunrise (1979) is set in ...
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 ...