SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Monday 19 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 ...
Kelly, Shane
(?1956-?1986) US author of The Hidden City (1980) in which Sex and other shenanigans are uncovered Under the Sea in a Lost World beneath the Bermuda Triangle. [JC]
Flowers for Algernon
One of the most widely adapted SF stories, Flowers for Algernon (April 1959 F&SF; exp 1966) by Daniel Keyes charts the progress of retarded Charlie/Charly, who develops a powerful Intelligence becomes a genius, and then slowly reverts to his original condition, after an only partially successful experimental treatment. Algernon, a white Mouse, was Charlie's ...
Latimer, John
(1937- ) Canadian author, mostly of Young Adult novels, whose The Last Pharaoh (1970) is a Lost Race tale set in Egypt, where a civilization untouched for thousands of years is discovered. Border of Darkness (1972) and Kelpie's Burn (1976) are fantasies. / He should not be confused with the author Jon Latimer (1964-2009). [JC]
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 ...