SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Saturday 14 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
Sponsor of the day: Paul Giamatti
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 ...
Armour, John
(1889-1954) Australian minister of the Presbyterian faith whose service in the Australian outback 1918-1920 inspired his fiction, of which Burning Air (1928) is sf. The premise – the eponymous radioactive wind promises to be a more or less free Power Source for Australia – is of potential interest, but the story itself is impossibly awkward, the author shows no real gift at landscape description, speculative gifts are absent, and ...
McQueen, Ronald A
(? - ) UK author known only for several Space Operas written for Robert Hale Limited, beginning with The Cosmic Assassin (1980) [JC]
Reichert, Mickey Zucker
Working name of US medical doctor and author Miriam Zucker Reichert (1962- ), who began publishing work of genre interest with "Homecoming" for Space & Time for Winter 1989. Almost all of her fiction has been fantasy [selected titles only in Checklist]; but her ninth novel, The Unknown Soldier (1994), is an sf tale about an Amnesiac soldier whose treatment in hospital is complicated by doubts over his origins in time ...
Tchaikovsky, Adrian
Working name of UK author Adrian Czajkowski (1972- ) who was initially best known for his long fantasy series, the Shadows of the Apt sequence beginning with Empire in Black and Gold (2008). The epic fantasy appearance of the series is modified, though not entirely transformed, by the fact that all the races in the long unfolding tale are insectile, or have at the very least insect-like characteristics, which intuitively befits the ...
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 ...