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Tuesday 8 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 7 July 2025
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Barton, Samuel
(1839-1895) US author who worked as a broker and also published under the pseudonym A B Roker. His sf novel, The Battle of the Swash and the Capture of Canada (1888), thought by Thomas D Clareson to be the first American Future War tale, was written to show the defencelessness of the US coasts as the USA and UK come to blows, a conflict eventually won by the US through the invention of self-destructing torpedo ...
Small Wonder
US tv series (1985-1989). Metromedia Productions, 20th Century Fox Television. Syndicated. Produced by Howard Leeds, Budd Grossman, Jean Hester, Bruce Taylor. Directors included Peter Baldwin, Linda Day, Leslie H Martinson. Writers included Dick Christie, Donald Ross, David Silverman. Cast includes William Bogart, Tiffany Brissette, Dick Christie, Alice Ghostley, Edie McClurg (first season only), Marla Pennington, Emily Schulman and Jerry Suprian. 96 30-minute episodes. Colour. / ...
DuPrau, Jeanne
(1944- ) US author of Young Adult novels, those of specific sf interest being her City of Ember sequence – The City of Ember (2003), The People of Sparks (2004) and The Prophet of Yonwood (2006), all three assembled as The Books of Ember (omni 2008), plus The Diamond of Darkhold (2008) – set in a Ruined Earth two ...
Senior, W A
(1953- ) US academic, administratively involved with the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts for many years, serving as President 1994-1998 and between 2002 and 2004; also involved as an organizer of the Association's annual conference, the International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts. As a critic, he is best known for Stephen R. Donaldson's Chronicles of Thomas Covenant: Variations on the Fantasy Tradition ...
Croft, Herbert
(1751-1816) UK barrister, lexicographer and author, best known for a nonfantastic roman à clef, Love and Madness (1780). He is of sf interest for the Kilkhampton series of Satirical sketches beginning with The Abbey of Kilkhampton; Or, Monumental Records for the Year 1980 (1780) [for further details see Checklist below]. Not specifically tied to this sequence, The Wreck of Westminster Abbey, Alias the Year 2000 ...
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 ...