SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Wednesday 16 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 14 July 2025
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Thiusen, Ismar
Pseudonym of Scottish-born academic and author John Macnie (1836-1909), in the USA from 1867 and on the faculty of North Dakota University 1885-1903. His Utopia, The Diothas, or A Far Look Ahead (1883; vt A Far Look Ahead, or The Diothas 1890; vt Looking Forward, or The Diothas 1890), set several millennia hence (almost but not quite in the Far Future), is prolific with suggestions of progress. ...
Greatorex, Wilfred
(1922-2002) UK editor, producer and scriptwriter for various Television series, most of them initially created by him as well, beginning with Probation Officer (1959-1962). He is of sf interest for 1990, creating and writing most of the scripts for this thirteen-part television series, as well as participating in a novelization Tied to the series, 1990 (1977), the main writer being ...
Barber, Ros
(1964- ) US-born academic, poet and author, in UK from the age of eighteen, her first book, How Things Are On Thursday (coll 2004 chap) being poetry. Her first novel, The Marlowe Papers (2012) could – given William Shakespeare's central importance to English literature – might almost be read as an Alternate History given a plot in which Christopher ...
Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame
Career Award for life achievement in Comics, so named in honour of Will Eisner (1917-2005), creator of the comic The Spirit (1940-1952) and author of influential analyses of comic art and narrative; presented annually since 1988 (with 1990 skipped owing to administrative complications); since 1991 the presentations have taken place at the San Diego Comic-Con Convention. Also included below are the ...
Fantastic Adventures
US Pulp magazine published by Ziff-Davis as a companion to Amazing Stories; 128 issues May 1939 to March 1953. Fantastic Adventures began as a bimonthly, large-size pulp, but maintained a monthly schedule from January 1940 for most of its existence, shrinking to standard pulp size in June 1940. To December 1949 it was edited nominally by Raymond A Palmer, although ...
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 ...