SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Monday 19 January 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 14 January 2026
Sponsor of the day: John Howard
von Däniken, Erich
(1935-2026) Swiss author of a series of purportedly nonfiction books, beginning with Erinnerungen an die Zukunft (1968; trans Michael Heron as Chariots of the Gods? 1969), which, based on a mass of often suspect and internally inconsistent data, argues that the Earth was visited by at least one Alien spacefaring race before and at the dawn of historical time; thus, for example, the Great Pyramid of ...
Adams, Scott
(1957-2026) US author and cartoonist best known for the Dilbert strip published from 1989, which when at its best superbly (in terms of concept and accuracy of Satire rather than quality of drawing) satirized contemporary office life and corporate incompetence. As with most ambitious modern comic strips, it segues frequently into sf and fantasy tropes – such as Robot office workers, wish-fulfilling ...
Earth Star Voyager
US made-for-tv film (1988). Marstar Productions, Walt Disney Television (see Disney on Television). Created and written by Ed Spielman. Directed by James Goldstone. Cast includes Peter Donat, Brian McNamara, Lynette Mettey, Jason Michas, Julia Montgomery and Duncan Regehr. Two 96-minute parts. Colour. / Earth is becoming uninhabitable due to Pollution (see Disaster), but a probe ...
Mitchell, M E
(? -? ) UK author whose Scientific Romance, "Yet in my Flesh –" (1933), describes the conflict between two Scientists over whose Drug will succeed in rejuvenating humans (see Immortality; Serge Voronoff). Some sign of the problematic popularity of ...
Sims, Alan
(? - ) Author, presumably UK, of the novels Phoinix (1928) and Anna Perenna (1930). Phoinix reworks Greek Mythology, not only retelling the saga of Achilles in the Trojan War but bringing in Hercules, the Argonauts and the poet Homeros (see Homer), who here exaggerates Achilles' rage and violence for dramatic effect. Anna Perenna (1930) is a broad ...
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 ...