SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Sunday 12 July 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.
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Carriger, Gail
Pseudonym of US archaeologist and author Tofa Borregaard (1976- ), who published some early short fiction under her real name, beginning with "A Kind of Malice" in Space and Time for 1999. As Carriger, she has focused almost exclusively on the Parasol Protectorate sequence – the central volumes of which are Soulless (2009), Changeless (2010), Blameless (2010), Heartless ...
Calvet, Emile
(? -? ) French author of whom little or nothing is known, and who according to Brian Stableford in his introduction to Dans Mille Ans (1883 Musée des Familles; 1884; trans Stableford as In a Thousand Years 2013), may be pseudonymous. His text is a Utopia based on the argument that advances in science and Technology are ...
Washburn, Robert Collyer
(1900-1978) US author, mostly of nonfiction; of sf interest is The Jury of Death: Twelve Against the Underworld (1930), a crime novel set in a Near Future version of Chicago (here Cayuga) run by the mob. Advances in Transportation, including autogyros, are evident; Television is common; an advanced Weapon, which seems to kill its victims but only stuns ...
Incredibles, The
Animated film (2004). Disney/Pixar Animation Studios. Written and directed by Brad Bird. 120 minutes. Cast includes Maeve Andrews, Bird, Spencer Fox, Eli Fucile, Holly Hunter, Samuel L Jackson, Jason Lee, Craig T Nelson and Sarah Vowell. Colour. / Superhero Bob Parr (Nelson), known as Mr Incredible, is forced into early retirement – along with his colleagues – by lawsuits over the collateral damage of his crime-fighting heroics. Fifteen ...
Butcher, William
(1951- ) US academic and translator, in Hong Kong from 2005; through his career he has focused very heavily on the work of Jules Verne, both as critic and translator. He is a strong and knowledgeable student of that author, and as his Jules Verne inédit: les manuscrits déchiffrés ["The Unpublished Jules Verne: The Manuscripts Deciphered"] (2015) demonstrates, is deeply familiar with the tangled manuscript ...
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 ...