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Sunday 7 December 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.
Site updated on 1 December 2025
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Stoppard, Tom
Working name of Czech-born playwright and screenwriter Tomáš Straussler (1937-2025), in the UK since 1946, the Stoppard surname being acquired from his stepfather when his widowed mother remarried in 1945. His early dramatic work was characterized by extravagant wit and wordplay, and an Absurdist application of logic to surreal or insane situations. Following the broadcast of several Radio plays, his ...
Whiteley, Elizabeth
(? -? ) UK author of The Devil's Throne (1903), whose protagonists, transfixed by a lamia, invade the realm of the Devil, which is behind the Moon, travelling there in an aircraft-like Spaceship; in the vicinity of the Throne, they meet the dead souls of some famous humans. [JC]
Maken Liner 0011 Henshin Seyo
Japanese animated film (1972; vt Go Get Team 0011; vt Demon Dog Liner 0011 Transform!). Toei Animation. Created by Sasagawa Hiroshi. Directed by Takeshi Tamiya. Written by Yûgo Serikawa and Masaki Tsuji. Voice cast includes Haruko Kitahama, Minori Matsushima, Masako Nozawa, Kyoko Satomi, Machiko Soga and Masato Yamauchi. 50 minutes. Colour. / Some time in the future, Professor Hayashi (Yamauchi) has announced that Earth is threatened by ...
Surrogates
Film (2009). Touchstone Pictures (see The Walt Disney Company) presents a Mandeville Films production. Directed by Jonathan Mostow. Written by John Brancato and Michael Ferris from the Comics series The Surrogates (5 issues 2005-2006; graph 2009) by Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele. Cast includes James Cromwell, Ving Rhames and Bruce Willis. 89 minutes. Colour. / Surrogates are ...
Hodge, T Shirby
Pseudonym of US author Roger Sherman Tracy (1841-1926). His sf novel, The White Man's Burden: A Satirical Forecast (1915), is set in 5000 CE, by which period the warlike and primitive white races (see Race in SF) have been restricted to North America while, in Black-dominated Africa, anarchism and scientific genius have generated a Utopian world. A white Invasion suffers ignominious defeat, and ...
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 ...