SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Wednesday 20 May 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 18 May 2026
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Roswell
US tv series (1999-2002). Created by Jason Katims, based on the book series by Melinda Metz and Laura J Burns. Producers include Katims, Ronald D Moore, and Jonathan Frakes. Directors include Patrick R Norris, Paul Shapiro, and Frakes. Writers include Katims, Moore, and Thania St. John. Cast includes Shiri Appleby as Liz Parker, Jason Behr as Max Evans, Katherine Heigl as Isabel Evans, Brendan Fehr as Michael Guerin, Majandra Delfino as Maria DeLuca, ...
Smythe, Alfred
(? -? ) UK author of A New Faust (1896; vt Van Hoff; Or, the New Faust 1897), whose protagonist discovers the secret of Immortality, which is given to him in a dream – or, perhaps, a binding vision of a Faustian bargain – by the Devil (see Horror in SF). He does not long enjoy his growing youthfulness. [JC]
Canter, Mark
(1952- ) US author whose Ember from the Sun (1995) combines elements of Prehistoric SF and the Lost World genre in the tale of a doctor who discovers the body of a pregnant, recently dead Neanderthal woman in Alaska, and implants the foetus in a human mother. The child, the eponymous Ember, grows up immune to cold, with paranormal (see Psi Powers) ...
Tor Books
US publishing company – initially of paperbacks and later moving into hardcover also – founded by Tom Doherty, then aged 44, in 1980, in conjunction with Richard Gallen; the first titles were published in 1981. Doherty had previously been in control of Ace Books for five years. The first editor-in-chief was Harriet McDougal, and first head sf editor was Jim Baen, who left in 1983 to form his own company in 1984. Beth ...
SF in the Classroom
In September 1953 Sam Moskowitz began to teach what was almost certainly the first sf course in the USA to be given through a college. The course was on Science Fiction Writing, was delivered on a non-credit basis through the City College of New York, and was presented with the collaboration of a popular-science writer, Robert Frazier (not to be confused with the sf poet Robert Frazier). For the Autumn 1953 sessions, ...
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 ...