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Sunday 12 April 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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Cameron, J D
A House Name used by the publishing and book packaging firm BPVP (see Byron Preiss) for the Omega Sub sequence of Post-Holocaust military-sf adventures about the crew of a nuclear sub which survives World War Three, beginning with Omega Sub #1: Omega Sub (1991) by Mike Jahn and ending with Omega Sub #6: Raven Rising (1992) by ...
Lang, Herrmann
(? -? ) Ostensibly Hermann Lang (but note spelling of his given name), a German professor in the Polytechnic School at Karlsruhe, with attested publications in chemistry in the 1850s. However, there seems to have been no German edition of his sf novel, The Air Battle: A Vision of the Future (ostensibly trans 1859), and Lang is may be the pseudonym of a UK author. The novel presents in short compass a remarkable portrait of a world several ...
Odom, Mel [2]
(1950- ) US artist whose career began in the mid-1970s with erotic illustrations for Blue Boy and Playboy, followed by genre work in Omni and 1980s paperback covers for novels by various authors including Richard Adams, Paul Hazel and other writers of Fantasy, a genre well suited to his distinctive pencil-and-gouache ...
Shatner, William
(1931- ) Canadian actor from 1952, and author, long resident in the USA, where he gained fame as Captain Kirk in the Star Trek television series, going on to star in all the film sequels; he also directed the disappointing Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989), about which he wrote, with Lisbeth Shatner, ...
Lease, Mary Elizabeth
(1850-1933) US editor, political activist of Feminist interest for her advocacy of women's suffrage; and author. Her activities on behalf of farmers, from her first public appearances around 1885, led to her close involvement in the founding of the anti-business Populist Party; she was a charismatic orator, unacceptable therefore by many of her male colleagues; her eventual departure from the Party signalled its imminent dissolution. It has been suggested by Brian ...
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 ...