SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Tuesday 20 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 19 January 2026
Sponsor of the day: Andy Richards of Cold Tonnage Books
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 ...
Heng, Rachel
(1988- ) Singaporean author, in US from adulthood. In her first novel, the Near Future Suicide Club: A Novel About Living (2018), which is set in a vividly cruel New York Media Landscape, a young woman whose genetic makeup gives her the chance of becoming Immortal (see Eugenics) must decide between ...
Two Complete Science-Adventure Books
US Pulp magazine, thrice yearly, eleven issues, Winter 1950 to Spring 1954, published by Wings Publishing Co. New York, a subsidiary of Fiction House; edited by Jerome Bixby (Winter 1950-Summer 1951), Malcolm Reiss (Winter 1951-Summer 1953) and Katharine Daffron (Winter 1953-Spring 1954). Issues numbered #1-#11. / A companion magazine to Planet Stories, Two Complete Science-Adventure Books ...
Three Stooges Meet Hercules, The
Film (1962). Normandy Productions/Columbia Pictures. Produced by Norman Maurer. Directed by Edward Bernds. Written by Elwood Ullman from a story by Maurer. Cast includes Samson Burke, John Cliff, Joe DeRita, Larry Fine, Moe Howard, George N Neise, Quinn Redeker, Emil Sitka and Vicki Trickett. 89 minutes. Black and white. / Working at Dismal's Drug Store in New York, the Stooges – Moe (Howard), Larry (Fine), and Curly Joe (DeRita) – meet ...
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 ...