SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Sunday 20 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.
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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 ...
McGarry, Mark J
(1958- ) US author who began publishing work of genre interest with "Acts of Love" (in The Edge of Space, anth 1979, ed Robert Silverberg), whose two novels are Sun Dogs (1981), in which humans and Aliens come to blows over rights over a valuable planet (see Colonization of Other Worlds), and Blank Slate (1984), in ...
Crichton, Michael
(1942-2008) US physician, film director and author, who also wrote as by Jeffery Hudson and John Lange. His first novel, Odds On (1966) as by Lange, a caper thriller which narrowly avoids the fantastic, was published before his graduation from Harvard Medical School; his medical background was evident here and throughout his career (see Medicine). Odds On was followed by several more pseudonymous titles, some of these having some sf interest. ...
Cramer, Kathryn
(1962- ) US critic and editor; daughter of John Cramer, married to David G Hartwell from 1997 until his death in 2016, who began publishing fiction of genre interest with "Forbidden Knowledge" in Mathenauts (anth 1987) edited by Rudy Rucker; she has been involved in various capacities with the ...
Stein, Benjamin
(1944- ) US actor (as Ben Stein), lawyer, journalist and author, an advocate of intelligent design in Evolution, apparently arguing that a proper understanding of the theory of evolution showed that it led inevitably to Eugenics and the excesses of Nazi Germany. His first novel, On the Brink (1977) with Herbert Stein, depicts a ...
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 ...