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Thursday 19 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 18 February 2026
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Hopkins, Seward W
(1863-1919) US author of magazine adventure tales for journals like Argosy, and of two Lost Race titles: In the China Sea: A Novel (1894), which locates an advanced hidden civilization just inland from the sea in question, and depicts a Future War consequential upon its discovery; and Two Gentlemen of Hawaii: A Novel (anth 1894), which also climaxes in Eastern waters. ...
Dreyer, Hans P
(1886-1945) Norwegian-born author, in US from the early years of the century; his sf novel, The Secret of the Sphinx (1929), is a Lost Race tale set in the Himalayas, to which am impecunious young doctor travels, leaving his wife behind. Her adventures, which include defending herself from a sexual abuser, may seem more fraught. [JC]
Thomson, K Graham
(? -? ) UK author of an sf novel for boys, People of the South Pole (1941), whose young protagonists discover a primitive Lost Race in a clement zone adjacent to the South Pole. They try to teach them civilization. [JC]
Piece of Phantasmagoria, A
Japanese animated tv series (1995). Original title Phantasmagoria. Shigeru Tamura Studio. Directed and written by Shigeru Tamura. Fifteen five-minute episodes. Colour. / A series of fifteen shorts each ending with its narrator explaining how, whilst travelling the realm of dreams, they discovered the little planet Phantasmagoria, from which the story comes (see Life on Other Worlds). They are usually ...
Dudley, Terence
(1919-1988) UK television director and producer, mostly for the BBC, and author of some Ties to his Doctor Who television work: Doctor Who – Black Orchid (1986), based on his 1982 script; Doctor Who – The King's Demons (1986), based on his 1983 script; and a Companions of Doctor Who tale: K9 and Company (1987), based on his 1981 script; he also wrote the four-episode story "Four ...
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 ...