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Monday 21 September 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 21 September 2026
Sponsor of the day: Andy Richards of Cold Tonnage Books
Gibbs, Henry
(1909-1975) UK artist, journalist and author, of whose many novels – several set in South Africa – Pawns in Ice (1948) is of sf interest for its depiction of Arctic explorers held in thrall by a strange Ray. [JC]
Gothic SF
In current usage a "Gothic" is a romantic novel with a strong element of the mysterious or the supernatural which usually features the persecution of a woman in an isolated locale; but this restricted and specialized use of the word, and the marketing category associated with it, have little to do with most sf. The term "Gothic" entered the English language as a descriptive term for a particular kind of story with the publication of The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story (1764) by ...
Alley Oop
US Comic strip, created and drawn by V T Hamlin from 5 December 1932 for Bonnet-Brown, a small firm which soon collapsed, then from 1933 for the NEA syndicate; Hamlin retired from the daily strip in 1968 and from the Sunday strip in 1973, when it was taken over by his assistant Dave Graue (1926-2001). Drawn in a style more comically exaggerated than usual in adventure strips, though with clear affection, Oop is a tough and likeable ...
Shaw, Brian
A House Name used by Curtis Warren on four novels by four different authors: Argentis (1952) by E C Tubb, Ships of Vero (1952) by David O'Brien, Z-Formations (1953) by John Russell Fearn (signing himself Bryan Shaw) and Lost World (1953) by Brian ...
Maps: Legendary Space Wanderers
Japanese Original Video Animation (OVA) (1987; original title Mappusu: Densetsu no Masayoeru seijintachi; vt Maps; vt Star Quest). Studio Gallop. Based on the Manga by Yuichi Hasegawa. Directed by Keiji Hayakawa. Written by Kenji Terada. Voice cast includes Akira Kamiya, Yūko Minaguchi, Hidekatsu Shibata, Mayumi Tanaka and Hiromi Tsuru. 52 minutes. Colour. / 16 year old Gen Tokishima (Tanakais) is abducted ...
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 ...