SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Sunday 9 February 2025
Welcome to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Fourth Edition. Some sample entries appear below. Click here for the Introduction; here for the masthead; here for 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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Sarrantonio, Al
(1952-2025) US editor and author who began publishing work of genre interest with "Ahead of the Joneses" in Asimov's for March 1979. Much of his work was horror, sometimes tinged with sf (see Horror in SF), including his first novel, The Worms (1985), a Gothic tale set in Massachusetts with hints of H P Lovecraft; and the Equipoisal Moonbane ...
Fane, Julian
(1927-2009) UK author of literary bent whose Dystopia, Revolution Island (1979), was one of the last UK visions of a union-dominated left-wing future. It was published just before the incoming administration of Margaret Thatcher (1979-1990) put an end, for the century of its publication, to the local relevance of this category of the dreadful warning. [JC]
Small Wonder
US tv series (1985-1989). Metromedia Productions, 20th Century Fox Television. Syndicated. Produced by Howard Leeds, Budd Grossman, Jean Hester, Bruce Taylor. Directors included Peter Baldwin, Linda Day, Leslie H Martinson. Writers included Dick Christie, Donald Ross, David Silverman. Cast includes William Bogart, Tiffany Brissette, Dick Christie, Alice Ghostley, Edie McClurg (first season only), Marla Pennington, Emily Schulman and Jerry Suprian. 96 30-minute episodes. Colour. / ...
Keen SF
US Semiprozine published and edited by Teresa Keene, Spokane, Washington; 12 issues, April 1996 to March 1997. A neat, Digest-size booklet, usually of between 40-50 pages, Keene paid 1½¢-a-word, striving to secure a decent pay-base. Her interests were in traditional "classic" forms of science fiction rather than modern trends and she encouraged her contributors to emulate their predecessors but with their own original ...
Gorman, J T
(1869-? ) UK author of Young Adult books, usually of a military cast; he often signed himself Major J T Gorman. Of sf interest is Gorilla Gold (1937), whose young heroes traverse Africa in an autogiro, meeting a giant white gorilla and a pterodactyl en route. [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 ...