SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Wednesday 18 February 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 16 February 2026
Sponsor of the day: The Telluride Institute
Nichols, Thomas Low
(1815-1901) US journalist, hydrotherapist, social reformer and author whose Esperanza: My Journey Thither and What I Found There (part publication July 1855-December 1856 Nichols' Monthly; 1860) anonymous is an epistolary Lost Race tale in which many of Nichols' arguments – he was an advocate of free love, a supporter of universal suffrage (see Feminism), and a libertarian – are described as central to ...
Day the Earth Stood Still, The
1. Film (1951). Twentieth Century Fox. Directed by Robert Wise. Written by Edmund H North, based on "Farewell to the Master" (October 1940 Astounding) by Harry Bates. Cast includes Sam Jaffe, Hugh Marlowe, Patricia Neal and Michael Rennie. 92 minutes. Black and white. / Produced at the beginning of the sf boom of the 1950s, this is generally regarded as a classic, though its ethics might ...
Revenge of the Creature
Film (1955). Universal. Directed by Jack Arnold. Written by Martin Berkeley, story William Alland. Cast includes John Agar, John Bromfield, Ricou Browning and Lori Nelson. 82 minutes. 3D. Black and white. / The success of Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) inspired the inevitable sequel, shot in 3D although seldom projected in that format. This time the Creature (Browning) is captured ...
Stranger Things
US online tv series (2016-current). 21 Laps Entertainment and Monkey Massacre for Netflix. Created by Matt Duffer and Ross Duffer. Written by Paul Dichter, Justin Doble, Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer, Jessica Mecklenburg, Jessie Nickson-Lopez and Alison Tatlock. Directed by Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer and Shawn Levy. Cast includes Millie Bobby Brown, Joe Keery, David Harbour, Charlie Heaton, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Matthew Modine, Shannon Purser, Winona Ryder, Noah Schnapp and Finn ...
Klaabu kosmoses
Estonian/Russian animated film (1981; vt Klaabu in Space). Tallinnfilm. Directed by Avo Paistik. Written by Avo Paistik and Enn Vetemaa. 15 minutes. Colour. / Klaabu kosmoses is the third part of a trilogy of dialogue-free shorts by Paistik. The first is Klaabu (1978; 10 minutes), where an egg is formed from a drop of water and is brooded by a passing bird: it hatches into Klaabu, a four-limbed egg with a face (and, judging from ...
Clute, John
(1940- ) Canadian critic, editor and author, in the UK from 1969; married to Judith Clute from 1964, partner of Elizabeth Hand since 1996. He began to publish work of genre interest with an sf-tinged poem "Carcajou Lament" in Triquarterly for Winter 1960 [ie Autumn 1959]; he began consistently publishing sf reviews in his "New Fiction" column for the Toronto Star (1966-1967), and later in ...