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Sunday 12 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.
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Pawle, Hanbury
(1886-1972) UK soldier, politician and author of Before Dawn (1955), a Future History of conservative hue, in which Christianity triumphs against Communism. [JC]
They Live
Film (1988). Alive Films. Directed by John Carpenter. Written by Frank Armitage (pseudonym of Carpenter), based on "Eight O'Clock in the Morning" (November 1963 F&SF) by Ray Nelson. Cast includes Keith David, Meg Foster and Roddy Piper. 94 minutes. Colour. / After several not very successful films for major studios (Starman [1984], Christine ...
Biagi, L D
Working name of US author Lottie Biagi (circa 1872-? ); the surname is that of her first husband (married circa 1890), and she later became Lottie F Ambrose on her second marriage in 1912. Her Two Heroes and a Violin: An Extravaganza (1899) is a supernatural fiction. The protagonist of her sf novel The Centaurians (1911) as Biagi travels with his Scientist friend in a torpedo-like ship of the latter's ...
Constantine, Storm
(1956-2021) UK author whose name, initially a pseudonym, became her legal name for all purposes. Her most successful work was perhaps the Wraeththu trilogy which began her career: The Enchantments of Flesh and Spirit (1987; rev 2003), The Bewitchments of Love and Hate (1988; rev 2003) and The Fulfilments of Fate and Desire (1989; rev 2003), all three assembled as Wraeththu (omni 1993; rev vt ...
McKimmey, James, Jr
(1923-2011) US author who, after serving in World War Two, began publishing work of genre interest with "Tergiversation" in Lilith Lorraine's The Avalonian (only issue, 1952), publishing around twenty sf stories over the next fifteen years for journals including Galaxy, If and Planet Stories. Much of his work during his career, ...
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 ...