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Thursday 12 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 ...
Gray, Alasdair
(1934-2019) Scottish painter, playwright, poet and author who began publishing work of genre interest with "The Star" in Collins Magazine for Boys and Girls for May 1951, whose boy protagonist finds a transparent fallen star through which he sees other worlds; when a schoolmaster demands it, he swallows the star, gaining Transcendence but clearly dying. As Gray acknowledged, the tale was inspired by H G Wells's "The Crystal ...
Verba, Joan Marie
(1953- ) US editor and author who began publishing work of genre interest with "Death's Scepter" in Four Moons of Darkover (anth 1988) edited by Marion Zimmer Bradley; much of her subsequent work has been for younger readers. She is of sf interest for her contributions to a Shared World sequence of original Ties to the Thunderbirds universe beginning ...
Norman, Donald N
Joint pseudonym of US authors Don Horan (? - ) and Norman Stahl (1931- ), in whose Technothriller Thunder Station (1990), which is set in the very Near Future, America and the USSR come to the brink of committing advanced Weapons and starting World War Three. [JC]
Bell, Neil
Preferred pseudonym of UK author Stephen Southwold (1887-1964), born Stephen Henry Critten; he took the name Southwold from his birthplace in Suffolk, because he despised his father, for reasons made clear in the semi-autobiographical chapters which recur in many of his novels; though it has been stated that he changed his name to Bell by deed poll around 1930, this seems not actually to have happened. At least one posthumous volume is copyrighted "Mrs Stephen Southwald". Though he also wrote ...
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 ...