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Thursday 14 May 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.
Site updated on 11 May 2026
Sponsor of the day: Paul Giamatti
Suzuki Kōji
(1957-2026) Japanese author and essayist, largely known in English through the Cinema adaptations of several of his books, the international success of which obscured his wide-ranging domestic output. His horror and Equipoisal fiction proceeded in tandem with a wide array (not listed here) of books on young fatherhood and occasional works on motorcycle travel. He was also the translator of Simon Brett's ...
Payne, Paul L
(1921-1992) US editor and author, who edited Planet Stories between 1946 and 1950, and who published some Space Operas, notably The Cructars Are Coming (Summer 1952 Two Complete Science-Adventure Books; 2008 ebook), in which Martians (see Mars) are wrongly accused of causing mass deaths on Earth. [JC]
White, Tim
Working name of British artist Timothy Don White (1952-2020). After artistic training at the Medway College of Design from 1968 to 1972, White worked in advertising for two years before receiving assignments to paint book covers for (principally) New English Library and Science Fiction Monthly; his first commission was for the 1974 Transworld/Corgi SF Collector's Library paperback of The Other Side of the Sky (coll 1958) by Arthur C ...
Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace
Film (1999). A Lucasfilm Ltd Production. Directed by George Lucas. Written by Lucas. Cast includes Jake Lloyd, Ian McDiarmid, Ewan McGregor, Liam Neeson and Natalie Portman. 133 minutes. Colour. / Although the work of a man in his fifties, The Phantom Menace is the most juvenile of the Star Wars films. The opening film in a prequel trilogy, the movie suffers from being a first act. Characters are ...
Gotthelf, Ezra Gerson
(1907-1981) US rabbi and author, whose sf Satire, The Island of Not-Me: A True Chronicle of the Life of Geoghan Willbe on The Island of Not-Me, Preceded by an Account of his Person Before his Arrival Upon that Famous Isle (1935), places on an Island a Utopia with totalitarian characteristic. It is written in a style distantly evocative of Jonathan Swift. [JC]
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 ...