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Monday 23 June 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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Forsyth, Frederick
(1938-2025) UK author who gained fame with his first novel, The Day of the Jackal (1971), and whose books are generally political thrillers. The Shepherd (1975 chap), however, is a sentimental Timeslip or ghost fantasy in which a pilot on Christmas Eve 1957 is saved from crashing by a World War Two pilot in an antique bomber: pilot and plane had been shot down on the Christmas Eve of 1943. ...
Adventures of Captain Havoc and the Phantom Knight, The
Australian Comic (?1947-?1949). Number of issues unknown; copies of #1-#6, #8-#10, #12 and #18 are extant in some form. Artists include Matt Baker, Don Ryan and C M Tighe. Writers include Noel P Bookes and John Libris. Issues #1-#2 were titled The Phantom Knight; from #3, The Adventures of Captain Havoc and The Phantom Knight. Some sources have this as a New Zealand comic – and there are copies with a New Zealand ...
Shaub, Earl L
(1886-? ) US author whose two novels of sf interest attempt to convey metaphysical lessons through genre conventions: the protagonist of Beyond Mars (1959) learns some central secrets of the universe on Mars; the eponymous protagonist of Noah's Daughter (1960) offers a more chthonic, more feminine wisdom. In both texts, God is of assistance. [JC]
We3
US Comic-book limited series (2004), published in three issues by the Vertigo imprint of DC Comics, later collected as a Graphic Novel (2005). Written by Grant {Morrison} and illustrated by Frank Quitely, the story follows three weaponized Cyborg animals – a dog, Cat and rabbit – as they escape from the military that ...
Everett, Percival
(1956- ) US academic and author, active from the early 1980s, whose novels variously and imaginatively press against mimetic readings; though most are nonfantastic, there is a sense that many of them pan the water margins of Fantastika. Several novels are of sf interest. In Zulus (1990), a Near Future tale set after the end of a nuclear World War Three, the ...
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 ...