SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Sunday 9 August 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 3 August 2026
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Twelve Monkeys
Film (1995). Polygram Filmed Entertainment and Universal Pictures present an Atlas Entertainment production. Directed by Terry Gilliam. Written by David & Janet Peoples, inspired by La Jetée (1963) by Chris Marker. Cast includes David Morse, Brad Pitt, Christopher Plummer, John Seda, Madeleine Stowe and Bruce Willis. 129 minutes. Colour. / A time traveller sent ...
Coetzee, J M
(1940- ) South African author (in Australia from 2002) and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2003, some of whose work relates to the fantastic. Works clearly standing outside any mimetic tradition include Waiting for the Barbarians (1980) (see Waiting for the Barbarians), which offers something like a Future War scenario – though one ...
Page, Thomas
(1942- ) US author whose first novel was The Hephaestus Plague (1973), filmed as Bug (1975), a tale which starts strongly, with vivid descriptions of the effect of an irruption from Underground of a new species of beetle capable of emitting fire, but which weakens when it begins to deal with a Scientist who becomes overfascinated with these beetles, which seem to ...
Bock, Dennis
(1964- ) Canadian teacher and author, active from the late 1990s, most of whose work has been nonfantastic. His first novel, Going Home Again (2013), is an analysis of the consequences of World War Two through the interwoven stories of its three afflicted protagonists. He is of specific sf interest for The Good German (2020), an Alternate History ...
Choose Your Own Adventure
Gamebook series (from 1979). Bantam Books, Chooseco. Designed by Edward Packard, R A Montgomery. / Choose Your Own Adventure is a line of "variable plot" or "multiform" books for younger readers; the path taken through the text is determined entirely by choices made by the protagonist, without the Role Playing Game-like rule-based mechanics used in such series as ...
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 ...