SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Sunday 15 March 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 9 March 2026
Sponsor of the day: John Howard
Sanda
Japanese animated tv series (2025). Science Saru. Based on the Manga by Paru Itagaki. Directed by Tomohisa Shimoyama. Written by Kimiko Ueno. Voice cast includes Hiroaki Hirata, Mariya Ise, Ayumu Murase, Anna Nagase, Masako Nozawa, Toshihiko Seki, Umeka Shōji and Hiroki Tōchi. Twelve 24-minute episodes. Colour. / When Kazushige Sanda's (Murase) classmate Shiori Fuyumura (Shōji) repeatedly tries to stab him on 25 ...
Dimondstein, Boris
Apparent working name of Russian-born author Boris Daymondshteyn (1891-1973), author of an anti-Communist Utopia, Utopia (The Volcano Island) – Revised Edition (1958); an earlier edition, if it exists, has not been identified. He also published work on German/Jewish issues. [JC]
Talking Heads
US rock band formed in New York in 1975 by vocalist and guitarist David Byrne (1952- ), guitarist and keyboardist Jerry Harrison (1949- ), bassist Tina Weymouth (1950- ) and drummer Chris Frantz (1951- ); active until 1991. Their tight funk-inflected pop-rock, with innovative use of what was at the time called "world music" (particularly African) elements, has proven enduringly influential. "Life During ...
Conrad, Joseph
(1857-1924) Polish-born author, in the UK mercantile marine from 1878 to 1894, a UK citizen from 1886, changing his name at that point from Józef Teodor Konrad Naleçz Korzeniowski to Joseph Conrad. For much of his life he laboured under the misprision of his early reputation as a teller of "mere" sea tales; but in later life he gained commercial success, and increasingly after World War Two he received wide attention for the more complex works of his maturity, like Nostromo ...
Rod Brown of the Rocket Rangers
US tv series (1953-1954). Columbia Broadcasting System for CBS-TV. Executive Producer: William Dozier. Produced by John Haggott. Directed by George Gould. Writers included Nelson S Bond, Don Moore. Cast includes Arthur Batanides, John Boruff, Bruce Hall, Cliff Robertson and Jack Weston. 58 30-minute episodes. Black and white. / In the mid-twenty-second century, Rod Brown (Hall) and his fellow Rocket Rangers operate from the base Omega, protecting ...
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 ...