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Monday 2 December 2024
Welcome to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Fourth Edition. Some sample entries appear below. Click here for the Introduction; here for the masthead; here for 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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Heldon
French electronic rock band formed in 1974 by Richard Pinhas (1951- ), named after The High Land of Heldon in Norman Spinrad's novel The Iron Dream (1972); originally active until 1979, and reformed with differing line-ups occasionally since. Pinhas has said the band was inspired equally by the events of May 1968 (in which he participated), the works of Gilles Deleuze, and science fiction, especially Philip K Dick (Pinhas ...
Lloyd, John Uri
(1849-1936) US chemist, author of Etidorhpa, or The End of Earth: The Strange History of a Mysterious Being and the Account of a Remarkable Journey (1895; rev vt 1901) [for full subtitles, which differ, see Checklist], a metaphysical Fantastic Voyage in which the narrator – whose manuscript has been discovered by Lloyd – is led by a blind humanoid named I-Am-The-Man to a Lost World in the ...
Dorfman, Ariel
(1942- ) Argentinian-born academic, playwright, journalist and author, in Chile from early childhood, alternatingly in the US from the late 1960s; active from the late 1960s. His work as a writer has been intimately engaged with the fate of Chile from the election of Salvador Allende (1908-1973) in 1970, through his death after an America-inspired coup in 1973, and through the tumultuous years since. His work in general is nonfantastic, though the main protagonist of ...
Spy-Rays
Traditional item of sf Terminology for various surveillance mechanisms employing some kind of Ray that can penetrate most forms of matter, conferring the power of undetectable eavesdropping upon its operator. E E Smith uses the term throughout his Lensman series and seems to have coined it in the original magazine version of Triplanetary (January-April 1934 Amazing; ...
Harris-Burland, J B
(1870-1926) UK author who began to publish magazine stories before the end of the nineteenth century, and who was very early to use the automobile in tales of adventure, an example being "Lord Beden's Motor" (December 1901 Strand). His first novels of sf interest, Dacobra, or The White Priests of Ahriman (1903) and The Princess Thora (1904; vt Dr Silex 1905 UK as J B Harris-Burland), were signed Harris Burland. ...
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 ...