SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Wednesday 9 July 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 7 July 2025
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Geigley, Vance A
(1907-1996) US author and businessman involved in mining, building and real estate investment, whose solitary sf novel is Will It End This Way? (1968). [JC/DRL]
Klaatu
Canadian pop band, most famous for their song "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft", on the album 3:47 EST (1976), which was notably covered by the Carpenters. More interesting is the band's second release, Hope (1977), a concept album about humanity's near-future encounter with the last survivor of the ancient Venusian "Politzanian" empire. After providing a rapid tour of the cosmos (track 3 is called "Around the Universe in Eighty Days") this survivor dies, ...
Chalker, Jack L
(1944-2005) US author and editor, though now very much better known for his fiction. He was active as a fan from an early age, and producer of a successful Fanzine, Mirage. As editor, he founded and edited the Mirage Press, which specialized in sf scholarship. His own work in that area began with The New H.P. Lovecraft Bibliography (1962 chap; rev vt The Revised H.P. Lovecraft Bibliography 1973 chap ...
Teratoid Guide, The
US letter-size saddle-stapled Media Magazines Fanzine. Editor and publisher: Claude D Plume Jr. Four undated but numbered issues, 1973 to 1974. Publication schedule was roughly quarterly. / The Teratoid Guide attempted to list all magazines concerning any type of "fantastic" films that had been published in various countries up to and including 1973. Its subtitle was "The International Guide to Magazines dealing with ...
Chapman, S E
(1847-1930) US medical doctor and author whose sf novel, Doctor Jones' Picnic (1898), takes the eponymous doctor on a Balloon trip to the North Pole; en route he cures cancer. [JC] see also: Invention. /
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 ...