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Sunday 16 August 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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Crowley, John
(1942-2026) US teacher and author who also worked in documentary films and television for some time beginning in 1966. His sf novels have had a considerable impact on the field, and his fantasies established him as a figure whose work courteously but deeply stretched the boundaries of genre literature. / His first novel, The Deep (1975), is set on a flat discworld resting on a pillar that extends beyond measurement into the circumambient galactic Deep, in which very few stars ...
Noel, Sterling
(1903-1984) US author and journalist, author of two sf novels: I Killed Stalin (1951), a Near-Future thriller in which World War Three is staved off by the deed described in the title; and We Who Survived (1959), which depicts the life and adventures of the survivors of the sudden onslaught of a new ice age (see Climate Change) as they flee south in a ...
Leckie, Ann
(1966- ) US author who began to publish work of genre interest with "Hesperia and Glory" in Subterranean for Summer 2006, and is also publisher/editor of the Online Magazine GigaNotoSaurus (which see). Her Imperial Radch sequence begins with Ancillary Justice (2013), a complexly couched Space Opera set several ...
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
Film (2004). Paramount Pictures, Brooklyn Films II, Riff Raff Film Productions. Directed by Kerry Conran. Written by Kerry Conran. Cast includes Trevor Baxter, Omid Djalili, Michael Gambon, Angelina Jolie, Jude Law, Bai Ling, Gwyneth Paltrow and Giovanni Ribisi. 106 minutes. Colour. / 1939. Arriving from Europe in an Alternate World New York as dusk deepens, the great Airship ...
Titane
["Titanium"] French/Belgian film (2021). Kazak Productions / Frakas Productions / Arte France Cinéma. Directed by Julia Ducournau. Written by Jacques Akchoti, Julia Ducournau and Simonetta Greggio. Cast includes Myriem Akheddiou, Bertrand Bonello, Vincent Lindon, Garance Marillier and Agathe Roussell. 108 minutes. Colour / A near-fatal car crash as a child leaves Alexia (Roussell) with a metal plate – the titanium of the title – ...
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 ...