SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Tuesday 10 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: Andy Richards of Cold Tonnage Books
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 ...
Tang Fei
(1983- ) Chinese author and photographer, Beijing-based, whose work seemingly sprang into the Anglophone sphere fully-formed, although her biography hints at earlier stories under other pseudonyms in multiple venues, including fantasy and Wuxia publications. She is also an occasional critic for the Jinji Guancha-bao ("Economic Observer"), a role that has imbued her with a cynical sense of distance towards her ...
Piel, Stobie
(1959- ) US author of several romantic historicals and of some sf, primarily the Pelloran sequence beginning with The Dawn Star (1996), a Space Opera series in which two adjacent planets, and their mutual intersecting dynasties, are in the foreground, or occasionally not, of impassioned Sex. Abductions occur. An Alien civilization contemplates an ...
Lory, Robert
(1936-2020) US public relations adviser and author, who began publishing sf with "Rundown" for Worlds of If (see If) in May 1963; his stories were assembled as A Harvest of Hoodwinks (coll 1970 dos). His sf novels, mostly light, fantasy-laced adventures, are unambitious but competent; they include Identity Seven (1974), which involves Identity Exchange in various realities, and ...
Fanac
US Fanzine, edited from Berkeley, California, by Terry Carr and Ron Ellik (issues #1-#65, February 1958-September 1960); Terry and Miriam Carr (#66-#71, November 1960-January 1961); and subsequently by Walter Breen (#72-#100, April 1961-February 1964). US quarto format, mimeographed; initially weekly, but for the most part fortnightly from July 1958; irregular from Spring 1962. 100 issues (but see below). / ...
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 ...