SF Encyclopedia Home Page
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
Sponsor of the day: The Telluride Institute
Weiner, Ellis
(1950- ) US author, humorist and editor, a former member of the National Lampoon editorial team. His first book-length work was The Great Muppet Caper! The Making of the Masterpiece (1981), a spoof behind-the-scenes production account of The Great Muppet Caper (1981), the second Muppets film. Of direct sf interest is National Lampoon's Doon (1984), a very broad Parody of Frank ...
Incredible Science Fiction [comic]
US Comic (1955-1956). EC Comics. 4 issues (numbered #30-#33). Artists include Jack Davis, Bernie Krigstein, Joe Orlando and Wallace Wood. Script authors include Al Feldstein and Jack Oleck. 4 comic strips and a short text story per issue. / Issue #30 opens with "Clean Start": the Solar Federation, worried by our bloodthirsty nature, has sent two Scientists to alter ...
Schlee, Ann
(1934-2023) US author, in UK from the 1950s, who mostly wrote historical novels, initially for Young Adult readers and later for adult audiences. Of sf interest is The Vandal (1979), an early example of the future Dystopia whose adolescent protagonist is banned from a central oppressive City, in this case a culture where enforced Amnesia intensifies the tyranny. ...
Mendham, Clement A
(1859-1941) UK civil engineer and author of a Lost Race tale, A Buried Mystery (1898), in which an ancient settlement is discovered in South America; the protagonist lives there a while, soon finding a maiden sufficiently white to marry. [JC]
Schram, Irene
(1941- ) US poet and author, her active publishing career extending from 1966 to 1974. Ashes, Ashes, We All Fall Down (1972) is a Fabulation in which hints of a possible Holocaust – a sudden massive fall of incinerator ash in an unnamed city identical to New York – are transubstantiated into fable as a group of ten-year old children, escaping what their ...
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 ...