SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Sunday 7 December 2025
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 1 December 2025
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Stoppard, Tom
Working name of Czech-born playwright and screenwriter Tomáš Straussler (1937-2025), in the UK since 1946, the Stoppard surname being acquired from his stepfather when his widowed mother remarried in 1945. His early dramatic work was characterized by extravagant wit and wordplay, and an Absurdist application of logic to surreal or insane situations. Following the broadcast of several Radio plays, his ...
Merle, Robert
(1908-2004) Algerian-born French author, in France from 1918, recipient of the Prix Goncourt in 1949, known primarily for his work outside the sf field. His Un animal doué de raison (1967; trans Helen Weaver as The Day of the Dolphin 1969) is an ingenious examination of scientific and political ethics following the main character's breakthrough in Communication with Dolphins, along the lines ...
Clark, Ronald W
(1916-1987) UK author and journalist, active mainly with nonfiction since before World War Two, writing several biographies of figures like Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russell. He began publishing sf with "The Man Who Went Back" for the London Evening Standard in 1949, but was not a prolific contributor to the genre. His first sf novel, Queen Victoria's Bomb: The Disclosures of Professor Franklin Huxtable, MA, Cantab. (1967), achieved ...
Beukes, Lauren
(1976- ) South African author, mostly of Urban Fantasy [see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below], who began to publish work of genre interest with "Branded" in SL Magazine for 2004. Her first two novels – Moxyland (2008) and Zoo City (2010), which won the Arthur C Clarke Award – suggest en passant sf ...
Kaluta, Michael W
(1947- ) American artist, born in Guatemala to American citizens. After a peripatetic childhood as the son of a soldier in the United States Air Force, Kaluta received his artistic training at the Richmond Professional Institute from 1966 to 1968 and then began his professional career. Some early covers for Fantastic magazine, interior illustrations for Fantastic and Amazing Stories, and a few book covers for ...
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 ...