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Thursday 16 July 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 14 July 2026
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Flanagan, Richard
(1961- ) Australian author whose third novel, Gould's Book of Fish: A Novel in Twelve Fish (2001) describes early Australian history – specifically the deeply troubled culture of Tasmania – in terms at points reminiscent of the Magic Realism techniques used by Latin American writers in their manufacture of national myths of origin; the tale is a central example of what has come to ...
Meredith, James Creed
(1875-1942) Irish judge, a Protestant who was an early supporter of Sinn Féin; as an author, he focused usually on philosophical subjects, and carried that interest into fiction in The Rainbow in the Valley (1939), which features scientists in western China who establish Communications with Mars, giving Meredith the chance discursively to compare and contrast the two civilizations in terms of their attaining ...
Clark, Alan M
(1957- ) US illustrator and author, in the latter capacity mainly of horror, often in collaboration, beginning with Not Broken, Not Belonging (1994 chap), a novelette. His first novel, Promised (2005) with Jeremy Robert Johnson, is also horror, as is the Blood of Father Time sequence beginning with The New Cut (2007) with Stephen C Merritt and Lorelei Shannon. Some of his tales ...
Nation, Terry
(1930-1997) UK author of television screenplays and other works, latterly resident in the US. He has the distinction of exercising a formative influence on three major sf series, Doctor Who (1963-current), Survivors (1975-1977) and Blake's 7 (1978-1981). / Nation began his writing career producing comedy material, for Tony Hancock among others, in the late 1950s and early ...
Plauger, P J
(1944- ) US physicist and author, involved professionally in computers. He began publishing sf with "Epicycle" in Analog for November 1973, and is best known for "Child of All Ages" (March 1975 Analog), about an immortal woman (see Immortality) who perpetually retains the body of a child (see Children in SF). Plauger won 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 ...