SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Wednesday 12 August 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 10 August 2026
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Crowley, John
(1942-2026) US teacher and author who also worked in documentary films and television for some time beginning in 1966. His sf novels have had a considerable impact on the field, and his fantasies established him as a figure whose work courteously but deeply stretched the boundaries of genre literature. / His first novel, The Deep (1975), is set on a flat discworld resting on a pillar that extends beyond measurement into the circumambient galactic Deep, in which very few stars ...
Jackman, Stuart
(1922-2002) UK author whose work hovers, somewhat uneasily, between sf and Fantasy (see his entry in The Encyclopedia of Fantasy). His Christ Cycle – comprising The Davidson Affair (1966), Slingshot (1974) and The Burning Men (1976) – combines the two modes: as it deals with matters like the resurrection in a fantasy mode, while using ...
Weiner, Homer
(? - ) US author whose Spacewater Blues (1980) is a Young Adult Satire, whose protagonists' experiences of a very Near Future America are enabled by their transit through another Dimension. They learn, mildly, about Sex. [JC]
Gunn, James E
(1923-2020) US author, critic and teacher, born in Kansas City and educated at the University of Kansas, where he worked and taught – ultimately as professor of English and journalism and Director of the Center for the Study of Science Fiction, now the Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction – from 1958 to 2010, and where he remained Professor Emeritus until his death. Throughout his academic career, he published considerable sf criticism, beginning with excerpts from his MA ...
Phillips, Rog
Working name of US author Roger Phillip (not Phillips as often cited) Graham (1909-1966), a prolific contributor to the sf magazines of the late 1940s and 1950s, often writing as by Craig Browning; married to Mari Wolf 1950-1955. His first story was "Let Freedom Ring!" in December 1945 for Amazing Stories, which, along with its companion magazine Fantastic Adventures, remained his most regular ...
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 ...