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Wednesday 16 July 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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Christopher, Edgar Earl
(? -? ) US author of The Invisibles (1903), narrated in retrospect from the Near Future, as an American-based secret society, The Invisible Hand, advances its plot to overthrow the Czarist government of Russia, aided by various Inventions of its Scientist membership, including an advanced submarine, which has been constructed by the Invisibles's leader, a ...
Chepaitis, B A
(1957- ) US author whose Jaguar Addams sequence beginning with The Fear Principle (1998), a Space Opera set initially on a Prison satellite where the protagonist Jaguar Addams uses her Telepathic powers in attempts to cure inmates, some of whom are psychotic, some obsessed by Religion. Later volumes of the sequence, some set back on ...
Malcolm, Donald
(1930-2013) Scottish author of fiction and considerable popular science, some in collaboration with Archie Roy under the joint pseudonym Roy Malcolm (whom see for details). He began publishing sf with "Defence Mechanism" for New Worlds, November 1957. Two series of stories, the Matthew Brady/Preliminary Exploration Team tales in New Worlds 1957-1964 and the ...
Waldrop, Howard
(1946-2024) US author, an important member of the Texas-based school of sf writers, much of whose early work was set in the American South. He began to publish work of genre interest with "Lunchbox" in Analog for May 1972, reportedly John W Campbell Jr's last (and perhaps least typical) discovery before he died with the tale still in manuscript. This was assembled with other early stories, some previously unpublished, as ...
Fleischer, Max
(1883-1972) Polish-born animator, inventor, film producer and author, in US from 1887. His invention of the Rotoscope (patented 1915), allowing animated figures to be traced from live action images, was significant in the early history of cartoon Cinema. With his brothers Dave Fleischer (1894-1979) and Lou Fleischer (1889-1976), he founded Fleischer Studios in 1921, where he made a short documentary, The Einstein Theory of Relativity (1923) (see ...
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 ...