SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Saturday 24 January 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.
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von Däniken, Erich
(1935-2026) Swiss author of a series of purportedly nonfiction books, beginning with Erinnerungen an die Zukunft (1968; trans Michael Heron as Chariots of the Gods? 1969), which, based on a mass of often suspect and internally inconsistent data, argues that the Earth was visited by at least one Alien spacefaring race before and at the dawn of historical time; thus, for example, the Great Pyramid of ...
Adams, Scott
(1957-2026) US author and cartoonist best known for the Dilbert strip published from 1989, which when at its best superbly (in terms of concept and accuracy of Satire rather than quality of drawing) satirized contemporary office life and corporate incompetence. As with most ambitious modern comic strips, it segues frequently into sf and fantasy tropes – such as Robot office workers, wish-fulfilling ...
Cousin de Grainville, Jean-Baptiste
(1746-1805) French priest and author, much influenced by M Volney's Les Ruines: ou méditations sur les révolutions des empires ["Ruins: or, Meditations on the Revolutions of Empires"] (1791 chap) a telling nonfictional reflection on the nature of Ruins and Futurity, written at a time when the past and the future were beginning to seem to recede further and further from the present while ...
Paterson, Don
(1963- ) Scottish academic, editor, musician, composer and author, active from the late 1980s. His Poetry, which has been assembled in several collections beginning with Nil Nil (coll 1993 chap), is vigorous, formally inventive, various. Of specific sf interest is Zonal (coll of linked poems 2020 chap), a set of explorations into something like autobiography through the lenses of ...
Tron: Legacy
Film (2010). Walt Disney Pictures (see The Walt Disney Company) presents a Sean Bailey/LivePlanet production. Directed by Joseph Kosinski. Written by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz from a story by Kitsis and Horowitz, and Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal, based on characters created by Steven Lisberger and Bonnie McBird. Score by Daft Punk. Cast includes Bruce Boxleitner, Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund, Michael ...
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 ...