SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Thursday 17 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 16 July 2025
Sponsor of the day: Andy Richards of Cold Tonnage Books
Williams, Tess
(1954-2025) UK-born teacher, editor and author, in Australia for many years, there receiving a degree in literature from Curtin University and an MA in creative writing from the University of Western Australia. She began publishing work of genre interest with "The Padwan Affair" in She's Fantastical (anth 1995) edited by Judith Raphael Buckrich and Lucy Sussex. Of sf interest are two novels: Map of Power (1996), set mostly in a ...
Wray, Phoebe
Working name of US actor, environmentalist and author Phoebe Rae Gregory (1935-2016), whose Jemma's World sequence opening with Jemma7729 (2008) depicts the life in the twenty-third century of a young female protagonist who discovers that the misogyny and oppressiveness of the enclosed Dystopia of her birth can be rebelled against, and escaped from. Communal life outside the walls is described comfortingly (see ...
Sebold, Gaie
(? - ) US-born author, in UK from childhood, who began to publish work of genre interest with "A Fire by Night" in Legends for October 2002. Most of her work has been fantasy, including the Babylon Steel sequence beginning with Babylon Steel (2011; vt Bad Gods 2022) whose protagonist, who runs a brothel in the City of Scalentine, finds herself involved in noirish efforts to keep its ...
Brennert, Alan
(1954- ) US television producer and scriptwriter, and also author, essentially of fantasy and horror. His first genre publication was "Nostalgia Tripping" for Infinity Five (anth 1973) edited by Robert Hoskins. In his first novel, City of Masques (1978), actors scientifically programmed to become their roles run amok. Time and Chance (1990) is a kind of sf/horror tale in which two ...
Thiaudière, Edmond
(1837-1930) French philosopher and author, active from before 1860, most of his work being nonfiction. His sf includes La Dernière Bataille: épopée prophétique de l'année 1909 ["The Last Battle: Prophetic Epic of the Year 1909"] (1873 chap) as by Frederic Stampf, a Future War tale climaxing in the creation of a unified socialist Europe; and the three speculations about experimental ...
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 ...