SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Monday 13 January 2025
Welcome to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Fourth Edition. Some sample entries appear below. Click here for the Introduction; here for the masthead; here for 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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Straczynski, J Michael
(1954- ) US Television producer, playwright, journalist and author, who began to publish work of genre interest with "A Last Testament for Nick and the Trooper" in Shadows 6 (anth 1983) edited by Charles L Grant; his first novel, Demon Night (1988), like most of his fiction not connected to his television work, has been horror; further titles include OtherSyde ...
Tomorrow People, The
UK tv series (1973-1979). A Thames TV Production. Series conceived by Roger Price. Produced by Ruth Boswell and Price (1973), Boswell alone (1974-1975), Price alone (1976), Vic Hughes (1977-1979). Technical adviser Dr Christopher Evans. Cast includes Elizabeth Adare, Mike Holoway, Stephen Salmon, Peter Vaughan-Clarke, Sammie Winmill and Nicholas Young. Written mostly Price. Directors included Brian Finch, Price, Hughes. Eight seasons (two in 1978); ...
Winslow, Helen M
(1851-1938) US author, much of whose work advocates a moderate Feminism in which the central focus seems to be on equality of opportunity between the sexes, as in the nonfantastic A Woman for Mayor: A Novel of To-Day (1909), whose victorious female mayor is much interested in hygiene, and has the city scrubbed clean. Of sf interest is the Near Future Salome Shepard, Reformer (1893), the eponymous ...
Aiken, Joan
(1924-2004) UK author, daughter of Conrad Aiken, stepdaughter of Martin Armstrong [for both men see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below], and sister of John Aiken; best known as a highly prolific author of fantasy for children and Young Adult readers. Almost none of her many adult novels contain explicit fantasy content, though some have supernatural ...
Nichols, Robert
(1893-1944) UK poet, playwright and author whose lyrical talent did not survive the end of World War One, in which he served, becoming famous for the war poems assembled in Invocations (coll 1915 chap); from 1920 he wrote plays, verse epics and some fiction. The Smile of the Sphinx (1920 chap), a fantasy, was later revised and assembled in ...
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 ...