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Monday 16 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 ...
Helfer, Andrew
(1958- ) US Comics editor and creator, and author of Ties including Indiana Jones and the Cup of the Vampire (1984), a Find Your Fate Adventure book, Superman, The Man of Steel (1984) and Supergirl, the Girl of Steel (1984), both of them in the Which-Way-Books – Superpowers sequence. [JC]
Hori Akira
(1944- ) Japanese author known for several Fixup collections of linked stories, whose sole novel to date won a 1989 Seiun Award amid controversial circumstances. After almost a decade in Japanese Fanzines, Hori's professional debut came with "Icarus no Tsubasa" ["The Wings of Icarus"] (1971 {SF Magazine}), swiftly establishing him as a hard-science thinker with ...
Lee, David Neil
(? - ) Canadian musician and author, variously active from 1980 or earlier; his Alternate World Midnight Games sequence beginning with The Midnight Games (2015) treats Hamilton, Ontario as a city under the sway of a church dedicated to bringing back the Ancient Gods who once ruled Earth (see Cthulhu Mythos; H P ...
Barker, Nicola
(1966- ) UK author, active from around 1990; her tales are almost exclusively set in the South-East of England, featuring characters who fit all too well into suburban subtopias, except for their tendency to commit mild verbal and physical mayhem on their surroundings. The mundanity of this world normally, in her work, seems shaky but does not normally spill over into the fantastic, though In the Approaches (2014) is partly narrated by a parrot; ...
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 ...