SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Friday 11 September 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 September 2026
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Magma
French prog-rock band whose albums elaborate a linked sf narrative about Kobaïa, a planet of spiritually enlightened humans who, having left Earth to form a new Utopian civilization, are now apparently attempting to communicate their wisdom to us. Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh (1973) is characteristic: musically an arresting blend of atonal classical and jazz influences, all tracks are sung in a weird Germanic-sounding invented language. In terms of ...
Graves, Robert
(1895-1985) UK poet, critic and author, C L Graves's nephew, best known for an active poetic career which began around 1911, before his active service in World War One and the war poems which established his reputation, and lasted until about 1975; and for such novels as the nonfantastic I, Claudius (1934). His tendentious claim that he wrote fiction solely for commercial reasons does little to explain the high ...
Aurealis
Australian SF Magazine of Semiprozine status based on its circulation (about 5,000) but of professional status based on payment rates. Published by Chimaera Publications, Melbourne, A5 format, side-stapled until issue #14 (December 1994), thereafter perfect bound. Founded and edited by Stephen Higgins and Dirk Strasser until issue #27/28 (October 2001), and then by ...
Grazier, James
(1902-1975) US author whose Hydra (1969) is a routine Young Adult tale, and in whose awkwardly written Runts of 61 Cygni C (1970) humans encounter approximately humanoid Aliens – they are one-eyed – and lots of kinky Sex on the planet 61 Cygni C. [JC]
Emmons, Cai
(1951-2023) US playwright and author, most of whose work was nonfantastic, though the disruptions of familial emplacedness that featured throughout her work continued to structure her late work, the exercises in planet-facing Fantastika that started with the very Near Future Weather Woman sequence beginning with Weather Woman (2018). The protagonist of the tale discovers that, at a time of crisis due to ...
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 ...