SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Sunday 8 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 6 February 2026
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Sallis, James
(1944-2026) US musician, poet and author, briefly active in New Worlds during its Michael Moorcock-directed New-Wave phase; he began to publish work of genre interest in this context with "Kazoo" (August 1967 New Worlds) and co-edited the magazine 1968-1969. His clearly acknowledged models in the French avant garde and the gnomic brevity of much of his work ...
Melcer, M V
(? - ) Polish-born author, in various countries from childhood, in UK from around 2013, who began to publish work of genre interest with "Ships Made of Guns" in Daily Science Fiction for September 2017. In her first novel, the Space Opera Refractions (2023), a female Starship captain, on a mission to save a colony planet (see ...
Wright, Will
(1960- ) US Game designer, inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame in 2002. Wright's first published work was Raid on Bungeling Bay (1984 Brøderbund Software, C64; 1985 MSX, NES), a well received helicopter combat game in which the player must destroy an enemy city in plan view. While writing Raid, he discovered that he found building the city maps using his own software tools ...
Zero Theorem, The
Film (2013). Voltage Pictures presents an Asia & Europe Productions and Zanuck Independent production in association with Zephyr Films, Media Pro Pictures, Le Pacte, Wild Side Films, Picture Perfect Corporation and Film Capital Europe Funds. Directed by Terry Gilliam. Written by Pat Rushin, with additional material by Gilliam. Cast includes Matt Damon, Lucas Hedges, Tilda Swinton, David Thewlis, Mélanie Thierry and Christoph Waltz. 107 ...
Nighbert, David F
(1948- ) US author who began publishing sf with his Stryker sequence – Timelapse (1988) and Clouds of Magellan (1991) – which engages its Cyborg protagonist first in a complicated Time-Paradox tale whose villain tricks him into falling in love with his own mother, and second in a traditional search for the long-gone Alien "Builders" ...
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 ...