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Tuesday 22 April 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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Broderick, Damien
(1944-2025) Australian author, editor and critic; he had a PhD in the semiotics of fiction, science and sf with special reference to the work of Samuel R Delany. He edited four anthologies of Australian sf: The Zeitgeist Machine (anth 1977), Strange Attractors (anth 1985), Matilda at the Speed of Light (anth 1988) and Centaurus: The Best of Australian Science Fiction (anth ...
Richardson, Benjamin Ward
(1828-1896) UK physician and author, eminent in the former capacity, for which he was knighted in 1893. He published and edited many medical studies, and pioneered the development of safe anaesthetics; an offshoot of these activities was the nonfictional Hygeia: A City of Health (1876), which describes a Utopia whose hygiene is spotless. As an author of fiction, he is some sf interest for The Son of a Star: A Romance of the Second Century ...
Toombs, Alfred
(1912-1986) US author in whose Good as Gold (1955), a Satire set in Near Future Washington, District of Columbia, the Transmutation of gold, reversing the traditional alchemical process, produces shit. [JC]
Sunshine
Film (2007). Fox Searchlight Pictures presents a DNA Films production in association with the UK Film Council. Directed by Danny Boyle. Written by Alex Garland. Cast includes Rose Byrne, Cliff Curtis, Chris Evans, Troy Garity, Cillian Murphy, Hiroyuki Sanada, Mark Strong, Benedict Wong and Michelle Yeoh. 107 minutes. Colour. / Theoretical physicist Robert Capa (Murphy) is part of a last-ditch eight-person rescue effort to save Earth from solar winter ...
Batchelor, John Calvin
(1948- ) US author whose first two novels, The Further Adventures of Halley's Comet (1980) and The Birth of the People's Republic of Antarctica (1983), are borderline fantasy and sf respectively. He has also published two mainstream novels, American Falls (1985) and Gordon Liddy Is My Muse, by Tommy "Tip" Paine (1990). With John R Hamilton he wrote Thunder in the Dust: Images of Western Movies (1987). / ...
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 ...