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Monday 9 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
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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 ...
Vallée, Jacques
(1939- ) French Computer scientist, UFO speculator and author, in US from 1962, a multidisciplinary figure who is of initial interest for his early sf novels, beginning with Le Sub-Espace ["Subspace"] (1961) as by Jérôme Sériel. The Professor Lesage sequence, beginning with Alintel: la première enquête du Professeur Lesage ["Alintel: Professor Lesage's ...
Dystopias
The word "dystopia" is the commonly used antonym of "eutopia" (see Utopias) and denotes that class of hypothetical societies containing images of worlds worse than our own. An early user of the term was John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), in a parliamentary speech in 1868, but its recent fashionableness probably stems from its use in Quest for Utopia (1952) by Glenn Negley (1907-1988) and J Max Patrick (1908-? ). Anthony ...
Pardoe, M
(1902-1996) UK author of several works for children, including the Argle sequence of Time Travel tales comprising Argle's Mist (1956; vt Curtain of Mist 1957), Argle's Causeway (1958) and Argle's Oracle (1959). The young protagonists, and their tutor, travel respectively to Britain in Celtic times and in Norman times, and finally to classical Greece. [JC]
Smith, Oli
(? - ) UK author exclusively to date associated with the Doctor Who universe, having written several Ties: Nuclear Time (2010) for the Doctor Who New Series, Decide Your Destiny: Judoon Monsoon (2010) for the Doctor Who: Decide Your Destiny series, and the nonfiction The Eleventh Doctor: Matt Smith (2010) for the Doctor Who Nonfiction ...
Clute, John
(1940- ) Canadian critic, editor and author, in the UK from 1969; married to Judith Clute from 1964, partner of Elizabeth Hand since 1996. He began to publish work of genre interest with an sf-tinged poem "Carcajou Lament" in Triquarterly for Winter 1960 [ie Autumn 1959]; he began consistently publishing sf reviews in his "New Fiction" column for the Toronto Star (1966-1967), and later in ...