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Monday 16 February 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 February 2026
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Carver, Jeffrey A
(1949-2026) US author who began publishing sf with "... Of No Return" in Fiction Magazine for 1974. His first novel, Seas of Ernathe (1976), which serves as an introduction to the loose Star Rigger sequence of Space Operas, showed early signs of a love of plot and thematic complexity which would take him some time, and several novels, to control. The continuation, Star Rigger's Way (1978), for instance, combines quest ...
Mystery of the Third Planet
Russian animated film (1982; vt The Secret of the Third Planet; vt Alice and the Mystery of the Third Planet). Original title Tayna tretyey planety. Based on the novel Puteshestviye Alisy ["Alice's Travels"] (in Devotchka S Zemli omni 1974; vt Alisa's Travels) by Kir Bulychev. Soyuzmultfilm. Directed by Roman Kachanov. Written by Kir Bulychev. Voice cast includes Vladimir Druzhnikov, Nikolai Grabbe, Olga ...
von Harbou, Thea
(1888-1954) German author, most noted for her novels based (at least in part) on screenplays written by herself and her husband, Fritz Lang, who divorced her after she joined the Nazi Party in 1932; she was co-author of the screenplays for all the films Lang made before leaving Germany in 1933. Neither Metropolis (1926; trans anon 1927), which was written in conjunction with ...
Sher, Abby
(? - ) US actor, performer and author, who is of sf interest for Sanctuary (2020) with Paola Mendoza, a Near Future Young Adult tale set in the Dystopian America of 2040 [for further details see her collaborator]. [JC]
Miss Kuroitsu from the Monster Development Department
Japanese Anime tv series (2022). Original title Kaijin Kaihatsubu no Kuroitsu-san; vt Kuroitsu-san in the Superhuman Research & Development Department. Quad. Based on the Manga by Hiroaki Mizusaki. Directed by Hisashi Saitō. Written by Katsuhiko Takayam. Voice cast includes Satomi Amano, Tetsu Inada, Kaori Maeda, M.A.O. (Mao Ichimichi), Takuma Terashima and Yūichirō Umehara. Twelve 24-minute episodes. ...
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 ...