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Sunday 12 July 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.

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Wacks, Peter J

(1976- ) US publisher and author who began to publish work of genre interest with "Cat's Paw" in Of Fur and Fire: Tales of Cats & Dragons (anth 2011) edited by Dana Bell, Zeno Panagakos and Diann Wacks. Much of his work, like the Affinities Cycle series beginning with Bloodletting Part 1 (2014) with Mark Ryan, is fantasy [series not listed below]. His sf novel, Solar Singularity (2017) with Guy Anthony ...

Canty, Thomas

(1952- ) US illustrator known for his pale, delicate style, for the Art Nouveau-inspired, ethereal women he often paints, and for his use of stylized costume details. His approach has been famously described by Terri Windling as "New Romanticism", said to contrast with the "Heroic" style associated with artists like Frank Frazetta. Canty's fame is out of proportion to the amount of work (mostly book ...

van Scyoc, Sydney J

(1939-2023) US author, active in the Unitarian Church, who began publishing work of genre interest with Shatter the Wall (February 1962 Galaxy; 2016 ebook), and afterwards contributed stories regularly to the magazines. She soon became best known for her novels, beginning with the impressive Saltflower (1971), in which Aliens seed Earth to produce a new breed of "men" designed to create ...

Robinson, Roger

(1943- ) UK computer programmer, bibliographer and publisher, active in UK Fandom for many years. The Writings of Henry Kenneth Bulmer (1983 chap; rev 1984 chap) is an exhaustive Bibliography of one of the most prolific sf writers, Kenneth Bulmer, and Who's Hugh?: An SF Reader's Guide to Pseudonyms (1987) is similarly exhaustive in its ...

Mister X

Created by Canadian designers Dean Motter and Paul Rivoche, this cipherlike character – bald and with sunglasses, black overcoat and suitcase – appeared in illustrations and on record-album covers in the late 1970s before plans were made to publish a comic. The Mister X comic was promoted with several gorgeously designed posters 1981-1983 without in fact appearing. Eventually Rivoche was taken off the strip and the project was handed over to Jaime, Gilbert and Mario ...