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Wednesday 14 May 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.
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Fabian, Stephen E
(1930-2025) American artist, sometimes credited as Steve Fabian or simply Fabian. The self-trained Fabian first worked as an electronic engineer, but he began contributing art to Fanzines in the late 1960s and became a full-time professional artist in 1973. He did a number of covers and interior art for SF Magazines, mostly Amazing, Fantastic, and ...
Psychonauts
Videogame (2005). Double Fine Productions. Designed by Tim Schafer. Platforms: PS2, Win, XBox. / Psychonauts is a three-dimensional platform game (see Videogames) with a strong linear story and vividly drawn characters. The game's fictional world is informed by an absurdist sense of humour similar to the one seen in Ben Edlund's Superhero Comic ...
Nathan, Robert
(1894-1985) US author who began publishing work with no fantastic interest as Richard Florance in The Smart Set from 1915, and responsible under his own name for forty-two novels beginning with Peter Kindred (1919). The Barly Fields (omni 1938) – which contains The Fiddler in Barly (1926), The Woodcutter's House (1927) – in which the phrase "little green man" (see Little Green Men) ...
Kluge, Alexander
(1932- ) German film maker, controversialist and author, most of his fiction (around a thousand titles) being in the form of the short story. He is of sf interest for Lernprozesse mit tödlichem Ausgang (coll 1973; trans Christopher Pavsek of title novel only as Learning Processes with a Deadly Outcome 1996), set partly in a Ruined Earth venue, some time after ...
Quality Comics
The name most often used by US Comics publisher Comic Magazines Inc, founded in 1937 and active for some years. The logo Quality Comics appeared on all its titles from 1940 to the end of its existence. Established by Everett "Busy" Arnold (1899-1974), Quality published in various genres; Superheroes made up the bulk of its titles in the early to late 1940s, with such characters as Plastic Man 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 ...