SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Monday 17 February 2025
Welcome to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Fourth Edition. Some sample entries appear below. Click here for the Introduction; here for the masthead; here for 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 17 February 2025
Sponsor of the day: John Howard
Moore, Chris
(1947-2025) Prolific UK artist, known to the public primarily for his hard-edged treatment of Hard SF subjects, although in fact he produced covers in different styles for all sorts of other genres as well, including illustrations of record sleeves for artists as diverse as Rod Stewart, Fleetwood Mac, Status Quo and Pentangle. What impressed most about Moore's sf art was not just the photographic realism but the sense of scale, achieved largely through a ...
Stross, Charles
(1964- ) UK author of science fiction and fantasy, a former journalist on other subjects; he has published work in computer and Role Playing Game magazines. He began publishing work of genre interest with "In Search of a Fergussen Event" in the British Science Fiction Association's Focus for August 1985, though his first professional publication was not until "The Boys" ...
Fox, Mary
(1798-1864) UK author, an illegitimate daughter of King William IV (1765-1837); Richard Whately (1787-1863), the Archbishop of Dublin, may have written most of the Proto SF novel initially attributed mainly to her. Account of an Expedition (Planned and Conducted by Mr H Sibthorpe) to the Interior of New Holland (1837; rev vt The Southlanders: An Account of an Expedition to the Interior of New Holland 1860), neither edition credited on ...
Wilson, Theodora Wilson
(1865-1941) UK teacher and author, active in the latter capacity from about 1900. She was born a Quaker, and with the onset of World War One returned to that faith. Of interest is The Last Weapon: A Vision (1916), in which Scientific Romance and fantasy modes intermix: the eponymous Weapon, known as Hellite, is capable of destroying anything it touches. Perhaps in order to make ...
Vortex, The
US Amateur Magazine, two issues 1947, edited by Gordon M Kull and George R Cowie from San Francisco. The Vortex is listed in some indexes as a Semiprozine because of the production quality of the first issue, although the content was by unknown amateurs and it was distributed free. It was attractively printed on glossy paper, in a square Digest format. All the money was spent on the first ...
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 ...