SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Wednesday 12 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 10 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 resting on a pillar that extends beyond measurement into the circumambient galactic Deep, in which very few stars ...
Evans, David
(? - ) US author of whom nothing is known – the name may be a pseudonym – whose Time Station sequence of routine Changewar tales, beginning with Time Station London (1996), pits the Temporal Corps against various threats, in World War Two and elsewhen, against the proper order of history; Alternate Histories flicker in ...
Rice, Waubgeshig
(1979- ) Canadian journalist, broadcaster and author, active from around 2000; he is Anishinaabe, born in the Wasauksing First Nation, an entity adjacent to Parry Sound, Ontario. He is of sf interest for the Moon of the Crusted Snow sequence beginning with Moon of the Crusted Snow (2018), set in a Near Future world most of which has suffered a systemic collapse, though a remote Anishinaabe ...
Frazer, Shamus
Working name of UK author James Ian Arbuthnot Frazer (1912-1966), whose first sf novel, Acorned Hog (1933), depicts a socialist Dystopia established in a Near Future Britain where the universities are closed and students sent back to the soil; by the end of the tale, however, a restored monarchy turns to a savage feudalism, with all industry peremptorily banned to America; the Satire is ...
Raphael, John N
(1868-1917) Uruguayan-born translator (mostly of French plays), journalist (Paris correspondent for several papers) and author, apparently in UK from his early years; sf novel, Up Above: Being the Record of Doings of the "Shadow People" in the Year of Grace 1915 [for full subtitle see Checklist] (early version December 1912 Pearson's Magazine as "Up Above, the Story of the Sky Folk"; exp 1913), is based on Le Peril Bleu (1910; ...
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 ...