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Thursday 24 April 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.
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Broderick, Damien
(1944-2025) Australian author, editor and critic; he had a PhD in the semiotics of fiction, science and sf with special reference to the work of Samuel R Delany. He edited four anthologies of Australian sf: The Zeitgeist Machine (anth 1977), Strange Attractors (anth 1985), Matilda at the Speed of Light (anth 1988) and Centaurus: The Best of Australian Science Fiction (anth ...
Kolchak: The Night Stalker
US tv series (1974-1975). Francy Productions for Universal TV/ABC. Created by Jeff Rice. Executive producer: Darren McGavin. Produced by Paul Playton, Cy Chermak. Story consultant: David Chase. Cast includes Darren McGavin. Twenty 50-minute episodes. Colour. / This fondly remembered Television series was a spin-off from a successful made-for-tv movie, The Night Stalker (1972), produced by Dan Curtis and ...
Yefremov, Ivan
(1908-1972) Russian palaeontologist and author, a leading figure in the renaissance of Soviet sf (see Russia); his surname has also been transliterated as Efremov. He began writing "geographical" sf on a modest scale in the 1940s, assembling his early work in Vstretcha Nad Tuskaroroi (coll 1944; trans M and N Nicholas as A Meeting Over Tuscarora; And Other Adventure Stories 1946), Piat' Rumbo ["Five Wind's Quarters"] (coll ...
Discworld [series]
Bestselling comic Fantasy Series which is central to the popularity of Terry Pratchett (see his entry for further discussion). The Discworld setting is a flat world (see Flat Earth) supported by four elephants standing atop a giant spacegoing turtle, this whole ensemble complicatedly orbited by the local sun and moon. Beginning with broad ...
Duel
Made-for-tv film (1971). ABC/Universal. Directed by Steven Spielberg. Written by Richard Matheson, based on his original story "Duel" (April 1971 Playboy). Cast includes Eddie Firestone, Charles Steel and Dennis Weaver. 75 minutes; expanded and released outside the USA as a feature film, 90 minutes. Colour. / Universal Studios were so impressed by this television film directed by ...
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 ...