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Thursday 10 July 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 7 July 2025
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Francis, Marianne
(? - ) UK author of Egyptian Light (1950), a dynastic-fantasy-like tale set in Atlantis, featuring a princess in flight and her espousal to the Egyptian pharaoh (see Ancient Egypt in SF) who rescues her after shipwreck. Atlantis sinks. [JC]
Warren, Bill
Working name of William Bond Warren (1943-2016), sf fan and film buff, author with Allan Rothstein of the Recursive SF murder mystery Fandom Is a Way of Death (1984 chap), set in and distributed at the 1984 Worldcon in Los Angeles, and featuring many fan characters including Forrest J Ackerman. Warren worked with Walt Lee on the latter's monumental, ...
Vollmann, William T
(1959- ) US author whose work frequently utilizes sf topoi, in which context he exhibits none of the dis-ease typical of late twentieth-century Mainstream Writers of SF, a group to which he might plausibly be thought to belong. His vast gawping omnivorous oeuvre – comprising both fiction and intensely committed gonzo reportage – evokes in fact writers as far removed as Herman ...
Ōtomo Katsuhiro
(1954- ) Japanese Manga creator and film-maker, who became the most famous Anime director abroad in the early 1990s, largely on the basis of a single film. Like Hayao Miyazaki in the following decade, he occupied an iconic position as the face of the medium, despite conceiving much of his output in reaction to it. His comics debut, not sf, was with "Jūsei" ["Gun Report"] (August ...
Brain from Planet Arous, The
Film (1957). Marquette Productions Ltd/Howco International. Produced by Jacques R Marquette. Directed by Nathan H Juran (credited as Nathan Hertz). Written by Ray Buffum. Cast includes John Agar, Joyce Meadows and Dale Tate. 71 minutes. Black and white. / Young Scientist Steve March (Agar) is about to marry Sally (Meadows) when the criminal Alien brain Gor (voiced by Tate) arrives on Earth, and takes possession of Steve's ...
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 ...