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Tuesday 27 October 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 26 October 2026
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Markov, Georgi
(1929-1978) Bulgarian engineer, screenwriter and author, whose first novel, Pobeditelite na Aiaks: Nauchno-fantastichen roman ["The Conquerors of Ajax"] (1959), which is sf, describes an interstellar expedition to the planet Aiaks [Ajax], in an attempt to recapture meaning for humans after centuries of austere Utopia on Earth. After a difficult career in Communist Bulgaria, Markov came to the UK around 1970, where he wrote commentary for the BBC. For ...
SF Site
Web-based science fiction magazine launched by John O'Neill and Rodger Turner (1947-2025) in June 1997, making it in its final year of 2025 one of the oldest sf websites still in existence. O'Neill left to launch Black Gate, a site devoted primarily to fantasy and gaming (first issue, November 2000) but Turner continued as editor, assisted by Wayne McLaurin and Neil Walsh. Originally published as a rolling series of updates to the ...
Planet of Dinosaurs
Film (1978). Deathbeast Productions. Produced and directed by James K Shea. Written by Ralph Lucas from a story by Jim Aupperle. Creature effects by Doug Beswick and Jim Danforth (uncredited). Cast includes Mary Appleseth, Louie Lawless, Chuck Pennington, Max Thayer and James Whitworth. 83 minutes. Colour. / When the Starship Odyssey's reactor goes critical, nine of the crew manage to escape just before it disintegrates. Their shuttle-craft ...
Steverson, Kevin
(? - ) US author, father of Nick Steverson; his fantasy is not listed below. He is of sf interest for his initiating role in the Salvage Title sequence, a Shared World series beginning with Salvage Title (2018); titles are typically written with at least one collaborator. The sequence, which is Military SF, is set in a ...
Hawes, James
(1960- ) UK screenwriter and author whose first novel, the slapdash Satire A White Merc With Fins (1996), stirs a pot of story adjacent to Fantastika but subsides agitatedly. Dead Long Enough (2000) dramatizes death-panic, an abstraction that seems to take literal shape. Hawes of some sf interest for Speak for England (2005), whose protagonist, last survivor of a ...
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 ...