SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Thursday 12 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 9 February 2026
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Carver, Jeffrey A
(1949-2026) US author who began publishing sf with "... Of No Return" in Fiction Magazine for 1974. His first novel, Seas of Ernathe (1976), which serves as an introduction to the loose Star Rigger sequence of Space Operas, showed early signs of a love of plot and thematic complexity which would take him some time, and several novels, to control. The continuation, Star Rigger's Way (1978), for instance, combines quest ...
Sakaguchi Hironobu
(1962- ) Japanese Game designer and film director, inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame in 2000. Sakaguchi's first game was The Death Trap (1984 Square, PC88, PC98, FM7), an illustrated text Adventure in which the player must escape from a deserted island, released only in Japan. His fame rests, however, on the Console Role Playing Game ...
Heldon
French electronic rock band formed in 1974 by Richard Pinhas (1951- ), named after The High Land of Heldon in Norman Spinrad's novel The Iron Dream (1972); originally active until 1979, and reformed with differing line-ups occasionally since. Pinhas has said the band was inspired equally by the events of May 1968 (in which he participated), the works of Gilles Deleuze, and science fiction, especially Philip K Dick (Pinhas ...
Teng, Tais
Pseudonym of Dutch illustrator and author Thijs van Ebbenhorst Tengbergen (1952- ), active since about 1977, much of whose work has been sf for younger children and Young Adult audiences. He began to publish work of genre interest with "Jouw Liefde is Geen Stenen Bloem" ["Your Love Is Not a Stone Flower"] as Thijs van E Tengbergen in the Belgian Fanzine INFO-SFAN for May 1972, professionally reprinted ...
Gezora, Ganime, Kamēba: Kessen! Nankai no Daikaijū
Japanese film (1970; vt Space Amoeba; vt Yog – Monster from Space). Toho. Directed by Ishirō Honda. Written by Ei Ogawa. Cast includes Akira Kubo, Kenji Sahara, Atsuko Takahashi and Yoshio Tsuchiya. 84 Minutes. Colour. / On its way to study Jupiter the unmanned Spaceship Helios 7 is hijacked by a blue cloud-like creature (see Aliens) which ...
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 ...