SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Friday 13 June 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.
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Longyear, Barry B
(1942-2025) US author and editor who ran a printing company with his wife before beginning to write in 1977, beginning to publish work of genre interest with "The Tryouts" in Asimov's for November/December 1978. Before his 1981 hospitalization for alcoholism and addiction to prescription drugs – an experience which formed the basis of his non-sf novel Saint Mary Blue (1988) – he had already published prolifically, sometimes as by Frederick ...
Dent, Guy
(1892-1954) UK author who served in various military capacities during and after World War One, initially in the East African Mounted Rifles from 10 August 1914 and in various other capacities including Flying Officer in the Royal Flying Corps from 2 March 1916. He is best known for his adventure stories in The Detective Magazine and elsewhere, none of them fantastic, many featuring animals in natural habitats. His one contribution to sf was ...
Richardson, David J
(? - ) US author of The Star Dwarves Travesty (1994; vt The Star Dwarves Trilogy 1997), a Parody of the first three volumes (by real world chronology) of George Lucas's Star Wars film sequence, focusing more on puns and intermittent attempts at narrative hoopla. Sf spoofs based on funny name changes – Luke Skywalker ...
Disaster in Time
Made-for-tv movie (1991; vt Grand Tour: Disaster in Time; vt Timescape). Channel Communications presents a Wild Street Pictures Production. Directed by David N Twohy; produced by John A O'Connor. Written by Twohy, based on "Vintage Season" (September 1946 Astounding) by Lawrence O'Donnell (probably C L Moore writing solo). Cast includes Emilia Crow, Jeff Daniels, George Murdock and ...
Curtis, A C
(1867-? ) UK author of a Future War novel, A New Trafalgar: A Tale of the Torpedo Fleet (1902), whose focus is (as the title indicates) on naval operations. [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 ...