SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Monday 9 February 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 9 February 2026
Sponsor of the day: The League of Fan Funds
Carver, Jeffrey A
(1949-2026) US author who began publishing sf with "... Of No Return" in Fiction Magazine for 1974. His first novel, Seas of Ernathe (1976), which serves as an introduction to the loose Star Rigger sequence of Space Operas, showed early signs of a love of plot and thematic complexity which would take him some time, and several novels, to control. The continuation, Star Rigger's Way (1978), for instance, combines quest ...
Passes, Alan
Working name of UK screenwriter, translator, film technician and author Alan Pazolski (1943- ), who has signed himself Alan Passes-Pazolski since 1978. His first sf story was "Spoor" in New Worlds for June 1969, and he has written two sf plays, "Mystic of the Western World", produced 1976, and "Death Raise", produced 1977. Film-work includes co-author credits for The Pianotuner of Earthquakes (2005), about a doctor attempting ...
Kapp, Colin
(1928-2007) UK author and worker in electronics, initially with the Mullard Radio Valve Company; later a freelance electroplating consultant. He began publishing sf with "Life Plan" in New Worlds for November 1958, and much of his best work soon appeared in this magazine, including "Lambda I" (December 1962 New Worlds) – which deals with the perils of Transportation through the solid Earth ...
Martin, Carl
Working name of Rodney Carl Martin Jr (1950- ), US software engineer and author, primarily of nonfiction as Rod Martin Jr [not listed below]. With John Dalmas he wrote Touch the Stars: Emergence (1983), in which US researchers developing a Faster Than Light drive allowing interstellar travel are opposed by Secret Masters who wish to keep humanity ...
Unno Jūza
Pseudonym of author Shōichi Sano (1897-1949), sometimes rendered as Jūzō Unno, regarded along with Shunrō Oshikawa as one of the "founding fathers" of science fiction in Japan. He also published several works of nonfiction as by Kyūjūrō Oka, among other pen-names. A graduate in electrical engineering from Waseda University, Unno's first sale was the scientific detective story "Denkifuro no Kaishi ...
Robinson, Roger
(1943- ) UK computer programmer, bibliographer and publisher, active in UK Fandom for many years. The Writings of Henry Kenneth Bulmer (1983 chap; rev 1984 chap) is an exhaustive Bibliography of one of the most prolific sf writers, Kenneth Bulmer, and Who's Hugh?: An SF Reader's Guide to Pseudonyms (1987) is similarly exhaustive in its ...