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Friday 10 July 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 7 July 2026
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Nuclear Energy
The claim that sf is a realistic, extrapolative literature is often supported by the citing of successful Predictions, among which atomic power and the atom bomb are usually given pride of place. When the news of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was released in 1945, John W Campbell Jr, editor of Astounding Science-Fiction, was exultant, claiming that now sf would have to be taken seriously. ...
Powe, Bruce
(1925-2018) Canadian author whose sf novels concentrate on political disorders, a theme very common to post-World War Two writers from his country. Killing Ground: The Canadian Civil War (1968) as by Ellis Portal sets its fatal conflict in Near Future Canada, where separatist unrest leads to Quebec's independence and an American Invasion of Canada, which is repelled. ...
Alguire, Judith
(1946- ) Canadian author of Young Adult fiction; of sf interest is Zeta Base (1991), in which an ancient wise scientist finds her warnings about the instability of the Sun dangerously disregarded. [JC]
Alexander, David
Pseudonym used for sf by US author Lawrence Herskovits (1953- ), not to be confused with David Alexander [2] or David M Alexander below. Author of the Soldiers of War Western sequence as by William Reed; of the Phoenix sequence of Post-Holocaust military-sf adventures, comprising Dark Messiah (1987), ...
Allen, Irwin
(1916-1991) US film-maker long associated with sf subjects. He worked in radio during the 1940s; later, with the arrival of television, he created the first celebrity panel show. In 1951 he began producing films for RKO, and in 1953 won an Academy Award for The Sea Around Us, a pseudo-documentary which he wrote and directed. He then made a similar film for Warner Brothers, The Animal World (1956), which contained Dinosaur sequences animated by ...
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 ...