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Thursday 15 January 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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von Däniken, Erich
(1935-2026) Swiss author of a series of purportedly nonfiction books, beginning with Erinnerungen an die Zukunft (1968; trans Michael Heron as Chariots of the Gods? 1969), which, based on a mass of often suspect and internally inconsistent data, argues that the Earth was visited by at least one Alien spacefaring race before and at the dawn of historical time; thus, for example, the Great Pyramid of ...
Adams, Scott
(1957-2026) US author and cartoonist best known for the Dilbert strip published from 1989, which when at its best superbly (in terms of concept and accuracy of Satire rather than quality of drawing) satirized contemporary office life and corporate incompetence. As with most ambitious modern comic strips, it segues frequently into sf and fantasy tropes – such as Robot office workers, wish-fulfilling ...
O'Loughlin, Ed
(1966- ) Canadian journalist and author, some of whose earlier novels verge into Technothriller country but are not fantastic. His fourth novel, the very Near Future This Eden (2021), is of sf interest for its depiction of a world where games (see Games and Sports) do not only reflect reality but increasingly create the world. Though told with some ...
Landis, S M
(1829-1902) US clergyman and man of medicine (but not a doctor) whose theories about physical and mental health are promulgated in the 100 chapters of An Entirely New Feature of a Thrilling Novel!: Entitled, The Social War of the Year 1900; Or, the Conspirators and Lovers!: A Lesson for Saints and Sinners (1872), in which a healer, whose powers are sufficient for him to be described as a proto-Superman, combats evil and brings good sense (and a savage ...
Niccol, Andrew
(1964- ) New Zealand filmmaker who migrated to London in the mid-eighties, where he directed television commercials before moving to Hollywood in the nineties to write and direct feature films. After being bought out of his contract to direct his spec screenplay The Truman Show (1998) in favour of veteran Australian director Peter Weir, he made his debut as writer-director with the stylish ...
Robinson, Roger
(1943- ) UK computer programmer, bibliographer and publisher, active in UK Fandom for many years. The Writings of Henry Kenneth Bulmer (1983 chap; rev 1984 chap) is an exhaustive Bibliography of one of the most prolific sf writers, Kenneth Bulmer, and Who's Hugh?: An SF Reader's Guide to Pseudonyms (1987) is similarly exhaustive in its ...