SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Tuesday 18 August 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 17 August 2026
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Crowley, John
(1942-2026) US teacher and author who also worked in documentary films and television for some time beginning in 1966. His sf novels have had a considerable impact on the field, and his fantasies established him as a figure whose work courteously but deeply stretched the boundaries of genre literature. / His first novel, The Deep (1975), is set on a flat discworld (see Flat Earth) resting on a pillar that extends beyond measurement into the ...
James, Edward
(1947- ) UK academic and editor – early involved in UK Fandom – who began teaching at University College, Dublin, in 1970, and moved to York University in 1978, where he became Director of the Centre for Medieval Studies in 1992; he was appointed Professor of History at the University of Reading in September 1995, and was there responsible with Patrick Parrinder for founding Reading's MA in ...
Kent, Brad
A House Name used on four routine sf adventures published by Curtis Warren, three by Denis Hughes and Out of the Silent Places (1952) by Maurice G Hugi. [JC/DRL]
Muir, Ward
(1878-1927) UK photographer and author whose "Further East than Asia": A Romantic Adventure (1919) is set in a Lost World – an Island in the Far East – whose inhabitants gain longevity (see Immortality) through bathing in a radioactive pool, which also gives them leprosy. [JC]
Crysis
Videogame (2007). Crytek. Designed by Cevat Yerli, Sten Huebler, Christopher Auty, Bernd Diemer. Platforms: Win. / Crysis is, in essence, a game about enablement. The player adopts the role of a Near Future US Delta Force operative equipped with a suit of armour powered by Nanotechnology, or "nanosuit". As in Starsoldier (1977) (see ...
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 ...