SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Thursday 12 March 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.
Site updated on 9 March 2026
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Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
Japanese animated tv series (2002-2005). Based on the Manga by Masamune Shirow. Production I.G. Written and directed by Kenji Kamiyama. Voice cast includes Akio Ohtsuka, Osamu Saka, Sakiko Tamagawa, Atsuko Tanaka and Kōichi Yamadera. 52 25-minute episodes. Colour. / This Anime continues the story of Section 9, the Japanese Government's counter-terrorism and cyber- ...
Mullen, Stanley
(1911-1974) US artist, museum curator and pulp author who wrote over thirty sf and fantasy stories, beginning with "A Dero Named Clarence" for The Gorgon in 1947, many of them Space Opera, often in Planet Stories, until about 1959. His three books, from Small Presses, are Kinsmen of the Dragon (1951), which pits the hero against a secret society whose ...
Hayashi, William
(1955-2024) US IT worker, screenwriter, broadcaster and author who was known in the last of these capacities for the Darkside Trilogy beginning with Discovery (2009), which describes the discovery of an African-American colony that has been living on the other side of the Moon since before the first official US Moon landing. Part Pariah Elite, part Secret Masters, they have ...
Save the Green Planet!
South Korean film (2003); original title Jigureul jikyeora!. CJ Entertainment/Sidus. Written and directed by Jang Joon-hwan. Cast includes Baek Yoon-sik, Hwang Jeon-min, Lee Jae-yong, Lee Ju-hyeon and Shin Ha-kyun. 118 minutes. Colour. / Byeong-gu (Shin) is convinced that pharmaceutical executive Kang Man-shik (Baek) is actually an Alien from Andromeda, in advance of a planned Invasion of ...
Arrested Development
Term used in this encyclopedia for the not uncommon scenario whereby humanity's perceived failure to realize its potential – assumed by John W Campbell Jr and others to be boundless – results from externally imposed shackles whose recognition can amply justify Paranoia. Removal of these constraints is likely to trigger a more or less traumatic Conceptual Breakthrough. ...
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 ...