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Friday 22 September 2023
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.
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Morden, Simon
(? - ) UK geophysicist, teacher, editor and author who also writes as S J Morden. He began to publish work of genre interest with "Bell, Book and Candle" in Scaremongers 2: Redbrick Eden (anth 1998) edited by Steve Savile, which was included in his first collection, Thy Kingdom Come (coll 2002 multimedia CD; 2012), which comprises two linked sequences, one set in a darkening ...
Williams, Mark S
(?1972-2020) US author who began to publish work of genre interest with "Maze Run" with David J Williams in Star Wars Insider #131 for 2012; his first novel is Transformers: Retribution (2014), also with Williams, a Tie to the Transformer universe, prequelling the various films (see Transformers – The Movie etc). [JC]
Pope, Nick
(1965- ) US author of two Technothrillers, the Operation sequence comprising Operation Thunder Child (1999) and Operation Lightning Strike (2000), involving advanced Weapons used to threaten the UK, which turn out to prefigure an Alien Invasion. [JC]
Favenc, Ernest
(1845-1908) UK-born explorer, historian and author, in Australia from 1864, becoming famous for his explorations of the Australian interior from the mid-1870s on, though his histories and studies of Australian history, geography and culture were thought superficial, even at the time. His fiction was better received, especially for its vivid depictions of inland Australia; but did not make a serious impact. Novels of sf interest include The Secret of the Australian Desert (dated 1896 but ...
McDonald, Steven E
(1956- ) UK author, now in the US, who began publishing sf with "Empty Barrels" in Analog for June 1978, his best-known story being "Ideologies" (October 1980 Analog), and whose first novel, The Janus Syndrome (1981), put into Space-Opera guise a tale involving racial oppression, romantic exaggerations of material, and masquerades. He then fell silent, though he has more ...
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 ...