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Thursday 16 July 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 14 July 2026
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Mesa of Lost Women
Film (1953; vt Attack of the Spider Women). Ron Ormond Productions/Howco Productions, Inc. Executive producer Joy N Houck. Produced by Melvin Gordon. Directed by Ron Ormond and Herbert Tevos. Written by Tevos and Orville H Hampton (uncredited). Cast includes George Barrows, Jackie Coogan, Dolores Fuller (credited as Delores Fuller), Paula Hill (credited as Mary Hill), Robert Knapp, Nico Lek, Chris-Pin Martin, John Martin, Allan Nixon, Tandra Quinn, Angelo Rossitto, Harmon Stevens, ...
Kracht, Christian
(1966- ) Swiss journalist and author, whose first novel, Faserland ["Land of Fibres"] (1995), combining gonzo picaresque with elements of autofiction, was widely celebrated. He is of sf interest for several varying tales. Metan (2007) with Ingo Niermann unpacks, in a manner evocative of the deadpan spoof/hoax pyrotechnics of Robert Shea's and Robert Anton Wilson's ...
Schoon, Christian
(? - ) US screenwriter and author whose Young Adult Zenn Scarlett sequence comprising Zenn Scarlett (2013) and Under Nameless Stars (2014) focuses on the eponymous teenager, whose love of adventure and practical Xenobiology inspires her to become an "exoveterinarian" in a large Zoo on Mars. It is not certain ...
Xenoforming
A term logically based on the more familiar Terraforming, to denote the (usually gradual) transformation of a world to suit Alien rather than Earth-human Biology and Ecology. / The highest sf drama arises when xenoforming attempts are initiated by Extraterrestrials wishing to transform Earth for their own purposes. The Red Weed introduced ...
Time Gate
A permanent or sometimes only semi-permanent gateway that allows Time Travel but lacks the usual mobility of a Time Machine – the gateway's position in space is normally fixed – and the lightning-bolt arbitrariness of a Timeslip. Perhaps the best known written-sf example features in Robert A Heinlein's "By His Bootstraps" (October 1941 ...
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 ...