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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.
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Williamson, Neil
(1968- ) Scottish editor and author who began to publish work of genre interest with "Angelique's Lament" in Territories: The Slipstream Journal for 1993. Much of his earlier short fiction has been assembled as The Ephemera (coll 2006), most of this work comprising what might be called Fantastika rather than fantasy, as a constant transgressing of traditional genre boundaries is evident throughout. At least two of the ...
Monomolecular Wire
An ultra-strong and ultra-thin monofilament occasionally found in sf and typically consisting of a single, very strongly bonded molecule, though other explanations may be given. Obvious real-world precursors are synthetic fibres such as nylon monofilament; the film The Man in the White Suit (1951) extrapolates from nylon to the nearly uncuttable monofilament used to make the dirt-proof and tear-proof garment of the title. In the same ...
Alraune
Film (1928; vt Unholy Love; vt Daughter of Destiny). Ama Film. Directed by Henrik Galeen. Written by Galeen, based on Alraune (1911; trans 1929) by Hanns Heinz Ewers. Cast includes Brigitte Helm, Ivan Petrovich and Paul Wegener. 125 minutes. Black and white. / A professor of genetics (Wegener) conducts a cold-blooded experiment into the Nature-versus-nurture controversy. Using the semen of a hanged man to ...
Ryan, Thomas
(? -? ) UK author of Men in Chains (coll of linked stories 1938) comprising a series of tales designed to describe the Evolution of Homo sapiens in Scientific Romance language, beginning in prehistory (see Prehistoric SF) and moving to the Near Future. The title conveys Ryan's sense of the costs of ...
Rhodes, W H
(1822-1876) US lawyer, poet and author whose early work, like The Indian Gallows and Other Poems in Two Parts (coll 1846), but who soon began to publish newspaper pieces and stories under the name Caxton, notably The Case of Summerfield (13 May 1871 Sacramento Daily Union; 1907 chap), about a scientist who threatens to use his Invention – a technique for setting the oceans afire using potassium – unless he is paid a ...
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 ...