SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Monday 4 August 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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Williams, Tess
(1954-2025) UK-born teacher, editor and author, in Australia for many years, there receiving a degree in literature from Curtin University and an MA in creative writing from the University of Western Australia. She began publishing work of genre interest with "The Padwan Affair" in She's Fantastical (anth 1995) edited by Judith Raphael Buckrich and Lucy Sussex. Of sf interest are two novels: Map of Power (1996), set mostly in a ...
Griffin, P M
Working name of US author Pauline Margaret Griffin (1947-2020), who sometimes wrote as Pauline Griffin. She was initially known for the untaxing Star Commandos Military SF sequence set in an interstellar venue, beginning with Star Commandos (1986) and ending with Star Commandos #12: War Prince (2004). Griffin also published several fantasy stories, including Science Fantasy material ...
Terror from the Year 5000
US film (1958; vt Cage of Doom). La Jolla Productions. Directed and written by Robert J Gurney Jr; very loosely inspired by "Bottle Baby" (April 1957 Fantastic) by Henry Slesar (uncredited). Cast includes Ward Costello, Frederic Downs, Fred Herrick, Joyce Holden, Salome Jens and John Stratton. 70 minutes. Black and white. / We are loudly informed by the narrator that "in the year 1947 man broke through the sound ...
Návštěva z Vesmíru
["Visit from Space"] Czech (see Czech and Slovak SF) tv film (1977). Ostrava studio, Czechoslovak Television. Directed by Otakar Kosko. Written by Drahoslav Makovicka, based on Roadside Picnic (1972; trans 1977) by Arkady and Boris Strugatski. Cast includes Zdeněk Hradilák as Professor Pillman, Přemysl Matoušek as MrchoŽrout (literally "scavenger", but ...
Potter, David
(1874-1962) US naval officer and author who published nonfiction and sentimental novels under his own name and, pseudonymously, a Lost Race novel, The Lost Goddess (1908) as by Edward Barron, in which a beautiful descendant of the Mayans proves to come from a mysterious Island up a great South American river, where some of her folk have survived. [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 ...