SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Thursday 20 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.
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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 (see Flat Earth) resting on a pillar that extends beyond measurement into the ...
Raabe, H E
(1858-? ) US ship captain and author, who in his former role as captain was advised by a crew member (Jack London) to take up writing; his Krakatoa, Hand of the Gods (1930), hints of the involvement of a Lost Race in the apocalyptic volcanic eruption of Krakatoa in 1888. Raabe had himself traded in the South Seas. [JC]
Lord, Gabrielle
(1946- ) Australian author, mostly of thrillers, who has been publishing novels since 1980. Her fourth, Salt (1990), is a routine Post-Holocaust novel set in Australia in 2075 CE suffering from devastating Climate Change, the holocaust having been the product of Overpopulation, Pollution and ...
Buckman, H H
(1858-1914) US lawyer, politician and author, remembered for the segregationist Buckman Act of 1905, in terms of which the University of Florida on its founding statutorily excluded both women and persons of colour. In his sf novel, Merope: Or, the Destruction of Atlantis (1898), Atlantis is, as the title claims, destroyed, though only after the Atlanteans have conquered Greece. It is soon learned that the protagonists are avatars of figures from ...
Preston, H
Pseudonym used for fiction by US technical author Henry Preston Nail (1931-2012), author of Project Deep Space (2000), set in the moderately distant Near Future as private corporations finally provide the impetus to launch Homo sapiens into interstellar space; the Invention of successively more efficient Spaceship drives is focused upon. [JC]
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 ...