SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Friday 11 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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Cox, Arthur Jean
(1929-2016) US fan and author who began to publish work of genre interest with "The Twilight Planet" (June 1951 F&SF) as Arthur J Cox; he also wrote as Ralph Carghill, Jean Cox, Gene Cross, William Dean and John Thames Rokesmith. His first novel was Nude in Orbit (1968) as by Gene Cross, a spicy "adult" murder mystery in which the titular naked woman is found floating in space (see Crime and Punishment). A ...
Bierbower, Austin
(circa 1844-1913) US academic and author whose Prehistoric SF tale, From Monkey to Man, or Society in the Tertiary Age: A Story of the Missing Link [for full title see Checklist] (1894), suggests the Ice Age (see Climate Change) as the effective cause of the Missing Link's expulsion from the Garden of Eden, which is located in the heart of what would become the United States; and that proto-men's ...
Renwick, Brett L
(? - ) UK author of Wired for Chaos (2005), a late example of Cyberpunk whose noir protagonist, a pro in Virtual Reality contact sports, must go down fully-wired mean streets to discover the criminal who decapitated his girl-friend. [JC]
O'Riordan, Robert
(1943- ) Canadian teacher and author whose Cadre sequence of Space Operas comprising Cadre One (1985), Cadre Lucifer (1987) and Cadre Messiah (1988) follows the career of orphaned space cadet Pol Tryees into adventurous adulthood across the Galactic Empire, which he comes to understand and perhaps to rule. [JC]
Journey of Allen Strange, The
US tv series (1997-2000). Lynch Entertainment for Nickelodeon network. Created by Tommy Lynch. Produced by Paul Hoen and Robert C Mora. Directors included Topper Carew, Hoen, Shawn Levy, Jason Marsden and Lev L Spiro. Writers included Suzanne Bloch, Jean Gennis, Lynch and Phyllis Murphy. Cast includes Dee Bradley Baker, Erin J Dean, Arjay Smith, Shane Sweet, Jack Tate and Mary Chris Wall. 39 25-minute episodes. Colour. / After stowing away on an interstellar transport ...
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 ...