SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Tuesday 20 May 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.
Site updated on 19 May 2025
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Garnier, Jean-Paul L
(1981- ) US editor, poet and author of mostly speculative fiction who also publishes as Jean-Paul Garnier. He is best known as the editor of Star*Line, the official print journal of the Science Fiction Poetry Association (now the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association). His editorship, beginning in 2021, has been marked by consistency and dedication. Dozens of poems ...
Ruck, Berta
(1878-1978) Indian-born author, in UK from an early age, married to Oliver Onions from 1909 until his death [see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below]; of some interest for stories published in various collections such as The Post-War Girl and Other Stories (coll 1922), A Wish a Day (coll 1956) and Sherry and Ghosts (coll 1961). Of more direct sf ...
Gainax
Influential Japanese Anime studio founded in December 1984, also known as Studio Gainax or Kabushiki-gaisha Gainakkusu. / Japan's 1981 SF Convention, DAICON III, opened with a short animated film from DAICON Film, a studio founded by sf fans (see Fandom) from various Japanese universities – including Takami Akai, Hideaki Anno, Toshio Okada, Yasuhiro Takeda and Hiroyuki Yamaga. After gaining further ...
Besant, Walter
(1836-1901) UK author known primarily for his work outside the sf field; one of the main founders of the Society of Authors in 1884. His early novels were written in collaboration with James Rice (1843-1882); their The Case of Mr Lucraft and Other Tales (coll 1876 2vols) contains several fantasies, including the novella-length "The Case of Mr Lucraft" (27 October-10 November 1875 The World) about a man who leases out his appetite. The Revolt of Man (1882 anon) ...
Jensen, Reidar
(1942- ) Norwegian journalist and author, regarded as an important voice of New Wave sf in the 1970s. Jensen's first published story, "Den siste natten i hele verden" ["The Last Night in All the World"] (1969), received the Norwegian first prize in a sf contest arranged by three Scandinavian newspapers: Dagbladet (Norway), Politiken (Denmark) and Dagens Nyheter (Sweden). "Forsidepiker smiler aldri to ganger" ["Cover Girls ...
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 ...