SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Friday 17 January 2025
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 13 January 2025
Sponsor of the day: John Howard
Voronoff, Serge
(1866-1951) Russian-born surgeon and entrepreneur, in France from an early age; his theory that monkey testicles, when transplanted into the testicles of human males, would have a rejuvenating effect and increase longevity (see Rejuvenation), was influential during the 1920s. Voronoff argued his case voluminously, in texts like La Conquête de la Vie (1928: trans G Gibier Rambaud as The Conquest of Life 1928). It is estimated ...
Muller, John E
A House Name used on many sf and supernatural novels published by Badger Books. The great majority of these were the work of R L Fanthorpe (31 titles), with several more by John S Glasby and one by A A Glynn [for details see Checklist]. [JC/SH/DRL]
Adolph, José B
(1933-2008) Peruvian playwright, author and short story author who worked in multiple genres but had a sizeable science fiction output. His most respected long work of sf is the novel Mañana las ratas ["Tomorrow, the Rats"] (1984). His shorter sf is scattered among anthologies rather than published in unified collections, in part because, although Adolph acknowledged himself an sf author, he insisted in interviews that sf was merely one of the many genres in which he ...
Powers, Richard
(1957- ) US author of novels whose novels subject the contemporary world to scathing but abstract scrutiny; he is rarely misdescribed as a mimetic realist, though just as rarely is he called an sf writer. His first novel, Three Farmers on their Way to a Dance (1985), focuses a meditation on the apocalyptic nature of World War One through its protagonist's obsession with the famous photograph (the book is titled after it) by ...
Blair, Hamish
Pseudonym of Andrew James Fraser Blair (1872-1935), Scottish author, journalist and editor, resident in India for many years; his sf is all set in the Near Future, and focuses on issues of governance. In 1957 (1930) he describes how air power overcomes the Second Indian Mutiny (see Pax Aeronautica). In its sequel, Governor Hardy (1931), he focuses on the ensuing international intrigues, which lead to ...
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 ...