SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Wednesday 9 July 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 7 July 2025
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Kerr, Katharine
(1944- ) US author, best known for her substantial contributions to modern fantasy in the various segments of the Deverry Cycle [see Checklist; see also her entry in The Encyclopedia of Fantasy]; though her sf is of less inherent interest, the Polar City sequence comprising Polar City Blues (1990) and Polar City Nightmare (2000) with Kate Daniel, competently marries ...
Vulcan
This is the usual name given to an imagined planet within the orbit of Mercury, first proposed in 1859 by Urbain De Vernier to explain irregularities in Mercury's orbit (now understood to be an effect of Einstein's Theory of Relativity). Such a planet is observed in Donald W Horner's fanciful By Aeroplane to the Sun: Being the Adventures of a Daring Aviator and His Friends (1910), and ...
Fukushima Masami
Pen-name of Masami Katō (1929-1976), a Japanese author, editor, and translator, whose abrasive personality and passionate advocacy led to his nickname as "the Demon of SF" [SF no Oni]. / As a translator, Fukushima was a prime mover in the arrival in Japan of Anglophone works from the Golden Age of SF, although his first publication was the non-genre Elephant Walk (1948; trans Masami Fukushima and ...
Bradley, Jack
(?1903-1960) US author, mostly of detective fiction, who is of greatest sf interest for The Torch of Ra (1930 chap), a Near Future tale contributed to Hugo Gernsback's Science Fiction Series. In this story a terrorist organization attempts to destroy New York with a Ray that melts buildings. Bradley also appeared in ...
Carr, Terry
(1937-1987) US author and editor; married to Carol Carr from 1961 until his death. He became an sf fan in 1949 and, throughout the 1950s (and later), enjoyed a long and prolific career as such; one of his Fanzines, Fanac, co-edited with Ron Ellik, won a Hugo in 1959, and Carr eventually won his second Hugo as Best Fan Writer in 1973. Some of this writing ...
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 ...