SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Friday 20 June 2025
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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Forsyth, Frederick
(1938-2025) UK author who gained fame with his first novel, The Day of the Jackal (1971), and whose books are generally political thrillers. The Shepherd (1975 chap), however, is a sentimental Timeslip or ghost fantasy in which a pilot on Christmas Eve 1957 is saved from crashing by a World War Two pilot in an antique bomber: pilot and plane had been shot down on the Christmas Eve of 1943. ...
Béraud, Henri
(1885-1958) French journalist and author, active from 1903, winner of the Prix Goncourt in 1922 but now remembered more vividly for the contumelious anti-semitic anglophobic journalism he produced in support of the Vichy regime in France during World War Two, for which he was sentenced to death (sentence commuted). / At least two of his novels make use of sf topoi, though tentatively. Lazare (1924; trans Eric Sutton 1925; trans vt ...
Warhola, James
(1955- ) American artist, nephew of artist Andy Warhol. After obtaining a BFA from Carnegie-Mellon University in 1977, he moved to New York to pursue work as a commercial artist. He began his career in sf art with a clever cover for a 1982 edition of Philip José Farmer's The Book of Philip José Farmer (coll 1973), showing the author typing on Mars with Edgar Rice ...
Smith, Wayland
Pseudonym used for his one Scientific Romance by UK engineer and author Victor Bayley (1880-1972); he served in the Royal Engineers during World War One; his career at a high level in the Indian railway system was reflected in much of his adventure fiction, some of which verged on fantasy, and which he signed with his real name. Wayland Smith was a legendary blacksmith in German and Norse mythology; in ...
Thing, The [comic]
US Comic (1952-1954). 17 issues. Charlton Comics. Artists include John Belfi, Steve Ditko and Bob Forgione. Script writers include Carl Memling. 36 pages. 4-5 long strips and a short text story per issue, often with 1-2 short filler strips. / This comic contains "weird tales of suspense and Horror" introduced by an unseen narrator named The Thing; sf ...
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 ...