SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Tuesday 17 February 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 16 February 2026
Sponsor of the day: Andy Richards of Cold Tonnage Books
Hader, Elmer
(1889-1973) US illustrator and author, whose copious work, in collaboration with his wife, includes one Young Adult sf tale, The Skyrocket (1946) with Berta Hader, though it may be the case that the rocket in question is fuelled by magic. [JC]
Luckhurst, Roger
(1967- ) UK academic and author who brings a wide armamentarium of lucidly deposed critical and cultural theory to the study of sf, which he defines – or restricts for his purposes – as becoming a cluster of modalities of strong interest toward the end of the nineteenth century, when "discourses" of modernism and sf begin inchoately to take shape and shape each other (see Identity; ...
Pink Floyd
Prodigiously successful and influential UK supergroup, founded in the mid 1960s by bassist Roger Waters (1943- ), drummer Nick Mason (1944- ), keyboard player Rick Wright (1943-2008) and eccentric singer-guitarist Syd Barrett (1946-2006). This first incarnation of the band (identified by fans as "The Syd Barrett years") was characterized by a series of notable psychedelic and often drug-influenced live performances, mostly jazz-influenced rock ...
Phillips, Michael J
(1879-1932) US soldier, editor and author, active contributor of fiction to magazines from 1903 to around 1926; in his Future War tale, In Our Country's Service (1909), the war of 1938 between an augmented America – the Invasion of Canada has led to its being "annexed" in 1928 – and a powerful Japan (see Yellow Peril) ends in the latter's swift defeat, due to the ...
Red Planet Mars
Film (1952). Melaby Pictures/United Artists. Directed by Harry Horner. Written by John L Balderston and Anthony Veiller, based on the play Red Planet (produced in New York in late 1932; 1933 chap) by Balderston and John E Hoare. Cast includes Peter Graves, Andrea King and Marvin Miller. 87 minutes. Black and white. / Two young US Scientists, the married couple Chris Cronyn (Graves) and Linda Cronyn ...
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 ...