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Friday 13 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.
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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 ...
Train, Arthur
(1875-1945) US author and lawyer, best known for work outside the sf field, particularly his legal series about the lawyer Ephraim Tutt. Some of the stories assembled in Mortmain (coll 1907) – including the title story, "Mortmain" (2 June 1906 Saturday Evening Post), in the magazine where most of his fiction first appeared – verge on sf. In the first volume of Benjamin Hooker sequence, ...
Pastoral
The term "pastoral" can be understood in various ways, perhaps most usefully as being descriptive of a mode, where Arcadia [see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below] may be thought of as a particular location where the pastoral mode can unfold. The term can refer to the Classical or Shakespearean tale of courtiers holidaying among nymphs and shepherds, flirting with a condition of exile; it can refer, as William ...
Hawkins, Peter
(1926- ) UK bank clerk whose first sf sale was "Life Cycle" in New Worlds for Spring 1951; his 14 stories under his own name all appeared in that magazine and in Science Fantasy over the following decade. He published a routine sf adventure, The Plant from Infinity (1954) as by Karl Maras, a House Name. [JC]
Metamorphosis Alpha
Role Playing Game (1976). Tactical Studies Rules (TSR). Designed by James Ward (1951-2024). / Metamorphosis Alpha was the first science fiction RPG. It is set on a Generation Starship (the "Warden") which has suffered an unspecified disaster many years in the game's past, a concept inspired by Brian Aldiss's novel ...
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 ...