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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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Daniel, Charles S
(1851-? ) US author whose sf novel, Ai: A Social Vision (1892), which is set in 1950, describes some futile attempts to construct a Utopia; the protagonist, perhaps in despair, makes it clear that only a heavy dose of Eugenics can clear a path for the new world. [JC]
Time Tunnel, The
US tv series (1966-1967). An Irwin Allen Production for Twentieth Century Fox Television/ABC TV. Created by Irwin Allen, also executive producer; very loosely based on Time Tunnel (1964) by Murray Leinster. Directors included Allen (pilot only), Sobey Martin and J Juran. Writers included Harold Jack Bloom, Wanda and Bob Duncan, Peter Germano, William Welch, Carey Wilbur ...
Butor, Michel
(1926-2016) French critic and author, principally known as a leading exponent of the nouveau roman. Butor was one of the first mainstream and academic critics to consider sf seriously according to the same standards as general literature. He published an invigorating analysis of Jules Verne as early as 1949, and examined the dilemmas and future potential of the field in his penetrating study, "La crise de croissance de la SF" (1953); this was first ...
Ringdahl, Roar
(1935- ) Norwegian author and editor regarded as the Grand Old Man of Norwegian Fandom. Twelve years before the 1966 foundation of the Oslo Students' SF Club (Aniara), Ringdahl and Cato N Lindberg founded what was later called "The First Norwegian Fandom". In sf magazines of the time they found the addresses of foreign fanzines, and got in touch with some 200 sf fans in Sweden, the UK and the USA. Their first Fanzine ...
Kupstas, Marcia
(1957- ) Brazilian teacher and author whose Young Adult É Preciso Lutar! ["It is Necessary to Fight"] (1988) delineates a world (see Politics) where injustice must be combatted. O demônio do computador ["The Computer Devil"] (coll of linked stories 1997) features what may be Virtual-Reality avatars of H P ...
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 ...