SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Thursday 17 July 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.
Site updated on 16 July 2025
Sponsor of the day: Andy Richards of Cold Tonnage Books
Williams, Tess
(1954-2025) UK-born teacher, editor and author, in Australia for many years, there receiving a degree in literature from Curtin University and an MA in creative writing from the University of Western Australia. She began publishing work of genre interest with "The Padwan Affair" in She's Fantastical (anth 1995) edited by Judith Raphael Buckrich and Lucy Sussex. Of sf interest are two novels: Map of Power (1996), set mostly in a ...
Derrick, Katherine Ross
(? -? ) UK author whose only known novel, A Maid from Mars (?1923 chap), describes the experiences of a young female Martian (see Mars) in her attempts to establish a cultural bond with humans. [JC]
Takemiya Keiko
(1950- ) Japanese Comics artist, sharing with Moto Hagio a central position within the Year 24 Group and the winner of the first Seiun Award for Best Comic of the Year, in 1978. A precocious talent, Takemiya famously proclaimed herself to be Shōtarō Ishinomori's "first female ...
Borderlands [game]
Videogame (2009). Gearbox Software (GS). Designed by Matthew Armstrong. Platforms: PS3, Win, XB360 (2009); Mac (2010). / Borderlands is an "action RPG" (see Computer Role Playing Games), much influenced by First Person Shooters but in essence resembling a science-fictional variant of the hack and slash fantasy game Diablo (1997). ...
Midnight Mystery
US Comic (1961). 7 issues. Best Syndicated Features Inc. Artists include Paul Reinman, John Rosenberger and Ogden Whitney. Most scripts by Richard Hughes (see below). 3 or 4 strips and a one-page text story per issue. Each cover boasts "Astounding supernatural stories! Amazing science fiction! strange secrets!". Stories are a mixture of science fiction (including Science Fantasy), supernatural horror and Fantasy, with a picture and ...
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 ...