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Thursday 12 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 ...
Hall, George Rome
(1864-1938) UK author of a Future War tale, The Black Fortnight; Or, the Invasion of 1915 (1904), Germany being the invader. [JC]
Page, Thomas
(1942- ) US author whose first novel was The Hephaestus Plague (1973), filmed as Bug (1975), a tale which starts strongly, with vivid descriptions of the effect of an irruption from Underground of a new species of beetle capable of emitting fire, but which weakens when it begins to deal with a Scientist who becomes overfascinated with these beetles, which seem to ...
Key, Frank
Pseudonym of UK author and broadcaster Paul Byrne (1959-2019), whose early work appeared as limited-edition pamphlets – often self-illustrated – from the London-based Malice Aforethought Press which he co-founded in 1986 with Maxim Décharné (also published by the press). The first to be of genre interest, if tangentially, is perhaps Forty Visits to the Worm Farm (1987 chap). Key's stories tend towards surrealism and ...
Meynell, Esther
(1878-1955) UK author whose Grave Fairytale (1934) frames the tale of a frustrated musician with references to folklore, and Time's Door (1935), a Timeslip tale in which an Italian violinist travels by Timeslip to the eighteenth century, where he becomes involved with Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). Meynell was the niece by marriage of the poet and suffragette Alice Meynell (1847-1922). [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 reviews on BBC Radio from 1974 and ...