SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Monday 9 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
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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 ...
Gautier, Judith
Working name of French poet and author Louise Charlotte Ernestine Gautier (1845-1917), daughter of Théophile Gautier, and deeply influenced in her long-standing and intense use of Oriental venues and themes by Pierre Loti (1850-1923). Her stories cannot be thought of easily as sf, but the elaborate and engaging use of myth and traditional motif makes it possible to think of her as a significant figure in the evolution of French ...
TransVersions
Canadian Digest-size Small Press Semiprozine published by Island Speciality Reports, Victoria for the first eight issues, Autumn 1994 to Spring/Summer 1998, and then by Paper Orchid Press, Toronto. Edited by Dale L Sproule and Sally McBride through to issue #10 (Spring 1999) and then by Marcel Gagne and Sally Tomasevic. Issue #8/9 was a double issue, so that there were only ten ...
Hill, Reginald
(1936-2012) UK author and academic whose early sf was written as by Dick Morland. Both the Morland tales – Heart Clock (1973; vt Matlock's System 1996 as Reginald Hill) and Albion! Albion! (1974; vt Singleton's Law 1997 as Reginald Hill) – use Dystopian techniques to describe visions of repellent future UKs. In the first, citizens are fitted with termination devices for the government to use ...
Rottensteiner, Franz
(1942- ) Austrian sf critic, editor and literary agent; he has a PhD from the University of Vienna. He has edited the SF of the World series for Insel Verlag, the Fantastic Novels series for Paul Zsolnay Verlag, and the Fantastic Library series – now over 250 volumes – for Suhrkamp Verlag. He writes in English as well as in German, his critical articles having appeared 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 ...