SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Tuesday 13 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 12 October 2026
Sponsor of the day: The Telluride Institute
Edwards, Malcolm
(1949-2026) UK editor, critic and publisher, educated at Cambridge, where he graduated in anthropology. Active in UK sf Fandom in the 1970s and early 1980s, he published the first complete text of James Blish's "The Science in Science Fiction" (May 1951-May 1952 Science Fiction Quarterly) in his Fanzine Quicksilver #2 in 1971; edited the ...
Guasch, Pol
Working name of Spanish/Catalan author Pol Guasch i Arcas (1997- ), whose first novel, Napalm al cor (2021; trans Mara Faye Lethem as Napalm in the Heart 2024), is set Equipoisally in either or both an indeterminately Near Future Nomansland or the remains of an earthly City that might have once ...
Blaylock, James P
(1950- ) US author, born and based in California, whose first published sf was "Red Planet" for Unearth #3 in Summer 1977, and whose "The Ape-Box Affair" (April 1978 Unearth) (see Apes as Human) may be the first consciously Steampunk tale; his first books were two fantasies in his Elfin series, The Elfin Ship (1982; original ...
Hunger Games, The: Catching Fire
Film (2013). Lionsgate/Color Force. Directed by Francis Lawrence. Written by Simon Beaufoy and Michael Arndt, based on a novel by Suzanne Collins. Cast includes Liam Hemsworth, Josh Hutcherson, Jennifer Lawrence and Donald Sutherland. 146 minutes. Colour. / Francis Lawrence replaced Gary Ross, the director of The Hunger Games (2012), for the second adaptation of Collins's hugely popular series; ...
Gibson, Walter B
(1897-1985) US newspaper magician, journalist, editor and author whose first published work was a puzzle piece called "Enigma" for St Nicholas Magazine in 1905, the first of a huge number of puzzles and other articles relating to magic published over the next 80 years, the grand total of this and other periodical work coming to at least 6800 pieces, not counting at least 2000 published crossword puzzles; Gibson's interest in the occult and various Games led to 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 ...