SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Thursday 17 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.
Site updated on 16 July 2025
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Williams, Tess
(1954-2025) UK-born teacher, editor and author, in Australia for many years, there receiving a degree in literature from Curtin University and an MA in creative writing from the University of Western Australia. She began publishing work of genre interest with "The Padwan Affair" in She's Fantastical (anth 1995) edited by Judith Raphael Buckrich and Lucy Sussex. Of sf interest are two novels: Map of Power (1996), set mostly in a ...
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2
Animated film (2013). Sony Pictures Animation/Columbia Pictures. Directed by Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn. Written by John Francis Daley, Jonathan M Goldstein and Erica Rivinoja, based on story by Phil Lord, Chris Miller and Rivinoja. Cast includes Anna Faris, Will Forte and Bill Hader. 95 minutes. Colour. / The fact that original directors and writers Lord and Miller only return as executive producers with a story credit would usually spell danger, particularly given the directorial ...
Stickgold, Bob
(1945- ) US neurobiologist, psychiatrist specializing in sleep research and author, who began publishing work of genre interest with "Susie's Reality" in the UK edition of Worlds of If (see If) for May-June 1973. His first sf novel, Gloryhits (1978) with Mark Noble, deals with a Disaster following upon research in recombinant DNA, a government-funded ...
Startling Comics
US Comic (1940-1948). 53 issues. Better Publications. Artists include John Daly, August Froehlich, Leo Morey, Kin Platt, Leonard Sansone and Alex Schomburg, with Jack Binder also providing some artwork; Script writers include Donald Bayne Hobart and Charles S Strong. Approximately 68 pages until late 1943, then usually approximately 52 pages. Initially 7-8 long stories ...
Newman, Bernard
(1897-1968) UK civil servant and author who served in the trenches during World War One; most of his output consisted of espionage thrillers (some as by Don Betteridge) and detective mysteries, the two genres being perhaps most successfully combined in Maginot Line Murder (1939). The entertainment value of his sf is somewhat limited, as he used the form primarily to provide platforms for extended right-wing arguments about ...
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 ...