SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Wednesday 12 August 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 10 August 2026
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Crowley, John
(1942-2026) US teacher and author who also worked in documentary films and television for some time beginning in 1966. His sf novels have had a considerable impact on the field, and his fantasies established him as a figure whose work courteously but deeply stretched the boundaries of genre literature. / His first novel, The Deep (1975), is set on a flat discworld resting on a pillar that extends beyond measurement into the circumambient galactic Deep, in which very few stars ...
Siu Gaa
(? - ) Unknown and presumably pseudonymous author, known only for their short story "Ngomun dik Sidoi" ["Our Era"] (2020 Gongjyuhok web), a brief Satire concerning a tourist in 2050, unable to find historical sites in Hong Kong because all the names have been changed. Siu's characters are confused by deliberate rebrandings and also by misprisions brought about by ignorance – a street sign that identifies "Alexander ...
Steel, Mark
Almost certainly a pseudonym of the otherwise unidentified UK author (? - ) of Trouble Planet (1954), in which an agent, sent on a mission to Mars, reminisces about his cadet training on a Space Station while dealing with Aliens who live on an Asteroid. [JC]
Whitman, John Pratt
(1871-1963) US artist, playwright and author, perhaps best known for The Sympathy of the People: A Drama of Today (1920), a nonfantastic advocacy of labour reform based on the Boston police strike of 1919. Utopia Dawns (coll 1934) contains essays on Utopias, including texts by Sir Thomas More, William Morris, H G Wells and others; an ...
Gill, Judy
(1942- ) Canadian author, almost all of whose books are nonfantastic romances under her full name, Judy Griffith Gill. Of sf interest is Whispers on the Wind (2001), a romantic Space Opera tale whose protagonist, member of a Alien Telepathic Pariah Elite trapped on Earth, must liaise with a human female in ...
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 ...