SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Wednesday 11 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
Sponsor of the day: The Telluride Institute
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 ...
Destination Inner Space
Film (1966). United Pictures/Harold Goldman/Magna. Directed by Francis Lynch. Written by Arthur C Pierce. Cast includes Scott Brady, Gary Merrill, Sheree North and Mike Road. 83 minutes. Colour. / This minuscule-budget sf film is set in a research station Under the Sea whose Scientists discover a sunken Alien Spaceship and are menaced by its freed occupant, an ...
Space: 1999
UK tv series (1975-1977). A Gerry Anderson Production for ITC. Created by Gerry Anderson and Sylvia Anderson. Producers Sylvia Anderson (season 1), Fred Freiberger (season 2). Executive producer Gerry Anderson. Directors included Ray Austin, Lee H Katzin, Charles Crichton, David Tomblin, Val Guest and Tom Clegg. Story consultant Christopher Penfold (1941-2024). Special effects: ...
Elphinstone, Margaret
(1948- ) UK poet and author, longtime resident in Scotland, author of at least two gardening books and other works, who began publishing work of sf interest with "Spinning the Green" in Despatches from the Frontiers of the Female Mind (anth 1985) edited by Jen Green and Sarah Lefanu; several other stories, all assembled in An Apple from a Tree and Other Visions (coll 1991), involve the testing but strangely ...
Alten, Steve
(1959- ) US author who is perhaps best known for the Meg sequence, beginning with Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror (1997), which is premised on the survival of a megalodon, an extinct species of giant shark reputed to be the most powerful vertebrate predator (see Evolution) ever to exist. The tale, and its sequel, full of Scientific Errors 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 ...