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
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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 ...
Nevins, Jess
Working name of US reference librarian and author John J Nevins (1966- ), most of whose work to date has been nonfiction, with an emphasis on Fantastika, initially focusing on the study and annotation of Superhero Comics; he began to publish fiction with "A Jest, to Pass the Time" in Gentlemen of the Night, anth 2006, edited by Jean-Marc ...
Bridgman-Metchim, D
(? -? ) UK author who wrote poetry, including Wild West Poems (coll 1892) as B Metchim. Atlantis: The Book of the Angels (1900), a tale not perhaps consciously Equipoisal in a contemporary sense, but noted for its flamboyant intermixing fantasy, including the eponymous angels, and sf. The setting is Atlantis, threatened on all sides by Monsters ...
Arrested Development
Term used in this encyclopedia for the not uncommon scenario whereby humanity's perceived failure to realize its potential – assumed by John W Campbell Jr and others to be boundless – results from externally imposed shackles whose recognition can amply justify Paranoia. Removal of these constraints is likely to trigger a more or less traumatic Conceptual Breakthrough. ...
Pirate Writings
US Semiprozine, 26 issues, Winter 1992 to October 2005 (last two issues undated), published by Pirate Writings, New York until issue #16 (Spring 1998), thereafter by DNA Publications, Radford, Virginia; edited by Edward J McFadden III. Retitled Fantastic Stories of the Imagination from issue #19 Spring 2000. Intended as quarterly but only occasionally hit a regular schedule. The original title was never fully explained; like a pirate ship, the magazine ...
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 ...