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Sunday 12 April 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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Dobson, Bonnie
(1940- ). Canadian folk singer-songwriter. Her best-known song, "Morning Dew", first recorded for the album Bonnie Dobson at Folk City (1962), tells of the last surviving man and woman after a nuclear apocalypse (see Post-Holocaust), with a lavish string arrangement to embellish the simple folk melody. The lyrics were inspired by the film On the Beach (1959), directed by Stanley ...
Rae, Shana
(? - ) US author of a Near Future Sex novel, Open Legs (1977). [JC]
Shurkin, Joel N
(1938- ) US journalist (winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1979) and author whose very Near Future medical Technothriller, Helix (1979) with Desmond Ryan, extrapolates from the real effects of Legionnaire's Disease to depict a virulent nationwide Pandemic. [JC]
Green, Robert
(?1935- ) Canadian author and musician whose The Great Leap Backward (1968) depicts a future where Computers have taken over the cities, leaving the countryside in a natural state. [JC]
Tabler, Joseph
(1949- ) US abody surfer, bookseller and author, based for all his activities in California; he ran the well-known Joseph Tabler Books in San Diego 1989-1999. Of his thrillers, three have some sf interest: Capitol Hill Clones (1981), a political Satire involving a scatty use of Clones; The Microwave Caper (1981), in which a mysterious ...
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 ...