SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Wednesday 11 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 ...
Aoki, Ryka
(? - ) US musician, academic, poet and author, much of whose career has focused on the promotion of transgender artists (see Gender), active from before 2010; she began to publish work of genre interest with "The Gift" in Meanwhile, Elsewhere: Science Fiction and Fantasy from Transgender Writers (anth 2017) edited by Cat Fitzpatrick and Casey Plett. Aoki is of sf interest for her third novel, ...
Carroll, Lewis
Pseudonym of UK photographer, mathematician and author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832-1898), whose famous children's stories, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There (1871) – an early example of the novel (sf or otherwise) structured around the moves of a game of Chess – have had a profound impact on a wide range of writers, over and above the numerous ...
Hall, Hal W
(1941- ) US bibliographer, Special Formats Librarian at Texas A & M University Library until his retirement in August 2010. His useful series of Bibliographies began with his SFBRI/Science Fiction Book Review Index, starting with SFBRI: Science Fiction Book Review Index, Volume 1, 1970 (1971 chap), with an annual continuation published in each succeeding year up to ...
Reynolds, Alfred
(? - ) US author of Kiteman of Karanga (1985; vt Kiteman 1986), a Young Adult Planetary Romance set on Eftah, whose people are saved from the tyrannous lizard-riders known as the Hrithdon by the kite-rider Hero, young Karl, who is back from exile. [JC]
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 ...