SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Saturday 26 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.
Site updated on 21 April 2025
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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 ...
Liu Cixin
(1963- ) Multiple award-winning Chinese author who swiftly shot to prominence in the People's Republic after the publication of his debut short story "Jing Ge" ["Whale Song"] (June 1999 Kehuan Shijie). A graduate of the North China Institute of Water Power and Hydroelectric Engineering, he inadvertently presents a rather traditional career path for Chinese science fiction writers, continuing to work as a senior ...
Speculation
UK Fanzine edited by Peter Weston from Birmingham 1963-1973. 33 issues; mostly duplicated; UK quarto paper. / The first six issues, October 1963 to September 1964, were titled Zenith; the next seven, December 1964 to July 1966, carried the transitional title Zenith-Speculation; thereafter, from #14 in October 1966, it was simply Speculation. Averaging 60pp in its final incarnation, Speculation was for ...
Stranglers, The
UK band. Best known for their blokey post-punk rock, the Stranglers recorded only one sf concept album: The Gospel According to the Meninblack (1981), a strange concoction of conspiracy theories, Alien visitation and Biblical scripture with the governmental "men in black" (see Urban Legends) attempting to keep it all under wraps. It is very far from being the best Stranglers album. [AR] links / ...
Special Duty Combat Unit Shinesman
Japanese Original Video Animation (OVA) (1996). Original title Tokumu Sentai Shainzuman. Based on the Manga by Kaimu Tachibana. Production I.G. Directed by Shinya Sadamitsu. Written by Hideki Sonoda. Voice cast includes Yasunori Matsumoto, Ryoko Sakakibara, Nozomu Sasaki, Toshihiko Seki and Hekiru Shiina. Two 30-minute episodes. Colour. / This is an affectionate Parody of ...
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 ...