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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 ...
Reida, Alvah
(1920-1975) US author whose sf novel, Fault Lines (1972) – not to be confused with Kate Wilhelm's later novel of the same title – deals apocalyptically with the Disasters that afflict America of a San Andreas Fault earthquake caused, at least in part, by an unwary use of thermonuclear devices. [JC]
Denning, Troy
(1958- ) US author best known for numerous fantasy Ties, mostly in the Dark Sun and Forgotten Realms domains, at least once using the pseudonym or House Name Richard Awlinson for a title in the latter franchise; these are not listed below. Of sf interest are Ties like the Gamebook ...
Wallis, Redmond
(1933- ) New Zealand author active from the early 1960s whose Young Adult Triangulum sequence comprising Starbloom (1989) and The Mills of Space (1989) faces its young protagonists with Space Opera challenges, as an Alien civilization threatens Earth with a deadly Drug. [JC]
McElroy, John
(1846-1929) US printer, publisher, journalist and author most famous for the nonfiction Andersonville: A Story of Rebel Military Prisons: Fifteen Months a Guest of the So-called Southern Confederacy: A Private Soldier's Experience in Richmond, Andersonville, Savannah, Millen, Blackshear, and Florence (1879), an extremely influential first-person account. Of sf interest is ...
Clute, John
(1940- ) Canadian critic, editor and author, in the UK from 1969; married to Judith Clute from 1964, partner of Elizabeth Hand since 1996. He began to publish work of genre interest with an sf-tinged poem "Carcajou Lament" in Triquarterly for Winter 1960 [ie Autumn 1959]; he began consistently publishing sf reviews in his "New Fiction" column for the Toronto Star (1966-1967), and later in ...