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Tuesday 8 July 2025
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 7 July 2025
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Sallis, James
(1944- ) US musician, poet and author, briefly active in New Worlds during its Michael Moorcock-directed New-Wave phase; he began to publish work of genre interest in this context, with "Kazoo" (August 1967 New Worlds). His clearly acknowledged models in the French avant garde and the gnomic brevity of much of his work limited his appeal ...
Time Zone
Videogame (1982). On-Line Systems. Designed by Roberta Williams. Platforms: AppleII (1982); PC88, PC98 (1985). / Time Zone is an illustrated text Adventure with a highly linear plot (see Interactive Narrative). The player begins the game in possession of a Time Machine, having been chosen by a mysterious figure to save the future ...
Bonestell, Chesley
(1888-1986) US astronomical illustrator. Bonestell studied as an architect at Columbia University in New York, but never graduated, dropping out in his third year; nevertheless he was employed by many architectural firms and aided in the design of the Golden Gate Bridge and Chrysler Building. He then began working as a matte artist to produce special effects and matte paintings for over a dozen films, including Orson Welles's Citizen Kane (1941), ...
Envoy Extraordinary, An
Pseudonym of the unidentified author (? -? ) of King Squash of Toadyland (1890), a Satirical portrait of Britain during the course of which party politics are eliminated and the King deposed, creating something like a Utopia. Any presumption that the tale is set in the Near Future because it is not Queen Victoria who loses the throne perhaps insists too strongly ...
Buckley-Archer, Linda
(1958- ) UK scriptwriter for BBC Radio and Television, and author of the Young Adult Gideon Trilogy beginning with Gideon the Cutpurse (2006), where sf devices – Antigravity and a Time Machine – are utilized in the frame story and throughout, initially to transport its young protagonists ...
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 ...