SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Saturday 23 September 2023
Welcome to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Fourth Edition. Some sample entries appear below. Click here for the Introduction; here for the masthead; here for 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 September 2023
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Szilárd, Leó
(1898-1964) Hungarian-born physicist and author, in the USA from 1937, whose The Voice of the Dolphins and Other Stories (coll 1961) was published late in his celebrated career as a nuclear physicist who had been involved in the creation of the Manhattan Project. Several of these sf stories were written in the 1940s; one of these, "My Trial as a War Criminal" (Fall 1949 University of Chicago Law Review), is an early expression of the deep and often hidden fears of the ...
Futurology
The word "futurology" is a neologism coined in 1943 by a refugee German professor of sociology, Ossip K Flechtheim (1909-1998), then teaching in a US college; during the course of his American stay, he met and may have directly influenced Isaac Asimov, who was then beginning to publish the Robot/Foundation Future History that dominated his career, and whose central character, Hari Seldon, creates a ...
Orbital Children, The
Japanese Anime tv series (2022; original title Chikyūgai Shōnen Shōjo; vt Extraterrestrial Boys and Girls). Production +h. Directed and written by Mitsuo Iso. Voice cast includes Chinatsu Akasaki, Natsumi Fujiwara, Mariya Ise, Yumiko Kobayashi, Kensho Ono and Azumi Waki. Released as two films (Japan) or six episodes (internationally). Circa 180 minutes. Colour. / By 2034 (see Near Future), ...
Stevenson, Chris
(? - ) US author whose Planet Janitor sequence of Space Operas, beginning with Planet Janitor: Custodian of the Stars (2012), features the harum-scarum adventures of the eponymous disposal firm in the solar system, and beyond, where First Contact is achieved with exaggeratedly dangerous Aliens. The Girl They Sold to the Moon ...
Ulidia
Pseudonym of the unidentified UK author (? -? ) of the Near Future The Battle of Newry; Or, the Result of Thirty Years' Liberal Legislation (1883 chap) where, after the House of Lords is abolished in 1910, the better sort emigrate to America; Ulster and Scotland then revolt in alliance with the threatened monarchy, socialism collapses, and prosperity and social calm reign once more (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 ...