SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Sunday 15 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 ...
Chaon, Dan
(1964- ) US author, most of whose work may be defined as horror (see Horror in SF), the topoi of which are scrutinized with sophisticated intensity; active from the early 1980s; his early stories were assembled as Fitting Ends and Other Stories (coll 1995) and Among the Missing (coll 2001). Like all his work, they are hauntedly illuminating about the family romance between the world and the storyable, ...
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Film (2008). Lucasfilm Ltd/Paramount Pictures. Directed by Steven Spielberg. Written by David Koepp, based on a story by George Lucas and Jeff Nathanson. Cast includes Karen Allen, Harrison Ford and Shia LeBoef. 122 minutes. Colour. / The first three instalments of this much-loved modern Pulp series – Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), ...
Punch Punch Forever
Irish/Japanese online animated series (2023-current). Created, directed and written by Speedoru. Voice cast includes Chihaya Hanai, KL, Hinako Mori, Emi Miyajima and Akari Una. Two episodes to date, 8-12 minutes. Colour. / Earth's northern hemisphere is now red and seemingly molten, whilst the southern is blue, likely ocean; an orbital ring circles the equator, but has fragmented along one stretch. This is due to our planet's collision 200 years ago with the ...
Anderson, Olof W
(1871-1963) US author of The Treasure Vault of Atlantis [for subtitle see Checklist] (1925); the twentieth-century protagonists – who include the Baron de Cartaphilus (see Wandering Jew) – discover a mysterious mountain at the headwaters of the Amazon, and a portal leading deep within. Their discovery of the body of a man in a state of Suspended Animation, and their arousing of this original ...
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 ...