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Thursday 12 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.
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Williamson, Jill
(? - ) US author most of whose works are explicitly (and it is to presumed all are in fact) doctrinally consistent with her particular Christian faith (see Religion). Her numerous fantasies [not given in Checklist below] are clear examples of this procedure from conviction. Of sf interest is the Safe Lands sequence beginning with Captives (2013), which describes in ...
Barry, Max
(1973- ) Australian author whose first novel, Syrup (1999) as by Maxx Barry, edged toward the fantastic in its spoof treatment of the modern corporate world; his second, Jennifer Government (2003), gains in the force of its attack through full immersion in a Near Future environment in which governments have become enfeebled, and international corporations rule the roost. Echoes of The Space Merchants ...
Self, Will
(1961- ) UK journalist and author who early established a name for savagely gonzo Satire, both in his fiction and his nonfiction, where his targets run from adversarial anatomies of the State of the Nation to similar explorations and exposés of his own psyche, sparing nothing in his descriptions of his early years of drug addiction, and of his erratically transgressive acts as a human being. His work in all genres has the scatological ...
Dark City
Film (1998). New Line Cinema presents a Mystery Clock production. Directed by Alex Proyas. Written by Proyas, Lem Dobbs, and David S Goyer; story by Proyas. Cast includes Jennifer Connelly, Melissa George, William Hurt, Richard O'Brien, Ian Richardson, Rufus Sewell and Kiefer Sutherland. Theatrical cut 100 minutes; Director's Cut 111 minutes. Colour. / An Amnesiac murder suspect in a mysteriously sunless ...
Lodge, Mrs
(? -? ) UK author of A Son of the Gods (1898), a Lost Race tale set in the mysterious Middle Eastern city of Elhazaar, where a civilization of fire-worshippers is discovered. [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 ...