SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Saturday 24 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 ...
Counterfactual
Item of Terminology sometimes used to denote the Alternate History subgenre, thus avoiding the usual sf term. This avoidance may indicate either dislike of the conventional but grammatically awkward phrase "alternate history" or – regrettably often – an attempt to distance "respectable" or "literary" use of this traditional sf technique from science fiction itself. A narrative described as counterfactual will ...
Phantasy Star
Videogame (1987). Sega. Designed by Rieko Kodama, Yuji Naka. Platforms: MegaDrive (1994); MasterSystem (1987); vt Phantasy Star Collection GBA (2002). / Phantasy Star was one of the earliest Console Role Playing Games (see Computer Role Playing Games), and was influential on the development of the unique characteristics of the form. Both this game and its contemporary ...
Eden of the East
Japanese animated tv series (2009). Original title Higashi no Eden. Production I.G. Written and directed by Kenji Kamiyama. Voice cast includes Hiroshi Arikawa, Saori Hayami, Ryohei Kimura and Sakiko Tamagawa. Eleven 23-minute episodes. Colour. / In the then Near Future of 2011, Saki Morimi (Hayami), a young Japanese tourist, meets a naked and Amnesiac young man (Kimura) outside the White ...
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 ...