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Monday 16 March 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 9 March 2026
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Cox, Joan
(1942- ) US rancher and author whose first sf novel, Mindsong (1979), features a planet terraformed into a Hellenic Eden (see Utopia). Her second, Star Web (1980), is somewhat less engaging. [JC] see also: Faster Than Light. /
Takemiya Keiko
(1950- ) Japanese Comics artist, sharing with Moto Hagio a central position within the Year 24 Group and the winner of the first Seiun Award for Best Comic of the Year, in 1978. A precocious talent, Takemiya famously proclaimed herself to be Shōtarō Ishinomori's "first female ...
Antares
Obscure Italian prog rock band, whose sole album Sea of Tranquillity (1979) was released at the tail end of the genre's heyday. It is a loose concept album about an astronaut escaping a bad relationship on Earth and travelling to the Moon, only to hope his girlfriend will be waiting for him when he returns. This keyboard-led "symphonic prog", with sparse, heavily accented English-language vocals, aims for a Pink Floyd level ...
Lawrence, Margery
(1889-1969) UK author almost all of whose work was fantasy, with a concentration on ghost stories and tales of the occult [for Ghost Stories, Margery Lawrence, Occult Detectives and Occult Fantasy see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below]. The Club of the Round Table sequence comprises various tales told within a Club Story frame; in the Miles Pennoyer sequence, Pennoyer solves ...
Orchideengarten, Der
Germany large-quarto-size magazine, initially printed on Pulp paper. Fifty-one issues, monthly January to July 1919, then twice a month, August 1919 to May 1921, though only the first issue dated. Full title: Der Orchideengarten: Phantastische Blätter ["The Orchid Garden: Fantastic Pages"]. Founded and published by Karl Hans Strobl through his publishing firm, Dreilander Verlag, in Munich, it ...
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 ...