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Saturday 12 September 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.
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Lavers, Norman
(1935- ) US ornithologist, academic and author whose sf novel, The Northwest Passage (1984), engages in an experiment (see Postmodernism) familiar to readers of the modern novel: the book comprises a "text", complete with a scholarly apparatus which is itself, of course, part of the "text". In this case, a far-future editorial apparatus surrounds (see Ruins and Futurity) the ...
Scheer, K-H
(1928-1991) German author, active from 1948. He published prolifically – including much sf – in the circulating-library format in which many pulp adventures appeared in postwar Germany; none of this material has been translated. However, translations of his novellas in the weekly Dime-Novel SF format of Perry Rhodan (which see for any details), the enormously ...
Stahler, David, Jr
(1972- ) US teacher and author for the Young Adult market whose Truesight sequence beginning with Truesight (2004) is set – unusually for a Dystopia in this category – on a colony planet, whose blind (or forcibly blinded) inhabitants, locked in a Keep known as Harmony Station, may be the subjects of a ruthless experiment in cultural engineering. The ...
Biemiller, Carl L
(1912-1979) US businessman, journalist and author, of sf interest for his two series of novels for older children: the Jonny sequence comprising The Magic Ball from Mars (1953) and Starboy (1956); and, more interestingly, the Post-Holocaust Hydronauts sequence – The Hydronauts (1970), Follow the Whales: The Hydronauts Meet the Otter People (1973) and Escape from the Crater ...
Allbeury, Ted
Working name of UK crime/spy-fiction author Theodore Edward le Bouthillier Allbeury (1917-2005), much of whose fiction takes its authentic tone from the fact that he was in the British secret service during World War Two; he also wrote as Richard Butler and as Patrick Kelly. Some of his spy thrillers edge into Near Future venues, though his only sf novel proper is All Our Tomorrows (1982), which depicts a UK occupied by Russia after it has declined ...
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 ...