SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Saturday 15 August 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 10 August 2026
Sponsor of the day: David Cowhig
Crowley, John
(1942-2026) US teacher and author who also worked in documentary films and television for some time beginning in 1966. His sf novels have had a considerable impact on the field, and his fantasies established him as a figure whose work courteously but deeply stretched the boundaries of genre literature. / His first novel, The Deep (1975), is set on a flat discworld resting on a pillar that extends beyond measurement into the circumambient galactic Deep, in which very few stars ...
Gate, The
UK Semiprozine, irregular, three issues, published by Richard Newcombe, W Publishing, Peterborough; #1 (Summer) 1989 in pocketbook format edited by Maureen Porter (with help from the Peterborough Science Fiction Club); subsequent issues, #2 undated (Summer 1990) and #3 December 1990, A4 format, edited by Paul Cox. Besides fiction it ran film reviews by Kim Newman and book reviews by various hands. Despite the obvious efforts that ...
Elysium
American film (2013). Tristar Pictures/Sony. Directed by Neill Blomkamp. Written by Neill Blomkamp. Cast includes Alice Braga, Sharlto Copley, Matt Damon, William Fichtner, Jodie Foster, Diego Luna and Wagner Moura. 109 minutes. Colour. / In the year 2154, Earth's wealthiest citizens have retreated to an enormous, torus-shaped Space Habitat called Elysium (see Keep), where they enjoy ...
Clones, The
Film (1973; vt Dead Man Running). Filmmakers International/New World Pictures. Produced by Paul Hunt. Directed by Lamar Card and Hunt. Written by Steve Fisher from an original story by Card and Hunt. Cast includes Stanley Adams, Michael Greene, Susan Hunt and Gregory Sierra. 95 minutes. Colour. / Nuclear physicist Dr Gerald Appleby (Greene) discovers to his horror that an exact duplicate of himself has been attending his workplace and seeing his girlfriend Penny (Hunt). He has ...
Moore, Brian
(1921-1999) Irish-born author, in Canada 1948-1959, in the USA from 1959, best known for non-genre works like The Luck of Ginger Coffey (1960); he also published at least seven detective thrillers beginning with Wreath for a Redhead (1951) under his own name and as by Bernard Mara and Michael Bryan. Several of his novels contain strong elements of fantasy, like Fergus (1970) and Cold Heaven (1983), two tales linked by their preoccupation ...
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 ...