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Sunday 24 September 2023
Welcome to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Fourth Edition. Some sample entries appear below. Click here for the Introduction; here for the masthead; here for 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.
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Flower Kings, The
Prolific Swedish prog-rock band, founded in 1993 by guitarist and singer Roine Stolt (1956- ). The band records in English, and produces lengthy, musically complex albums at a dizzying rate. Back in the World of Adventures (album 1995) is a satisfying if generic collision of Fantasy and sf figures. Retropolis (album 1996) is a concept album set in the titular future-city, in which Judas ...
Hubschman, Thomas
(1941- ) US author of two Space Opera adventures, Alpha-II (dated 1979 but 1980) and Space Ark (1981); the latter attempts, with some ambition, to conflate complex Apes as Human issues on a threatened Earth some time in the future, but tends to melodramatics that, in the light of the New Space Opera now ascendant, seem simplistic. [JC]
Traill, H D
(1842-1900) UK lawyer, journalist and author, of most interest for his Satires, early examples – like The Israelitish Question: And the Comments of the Canaan Journals Thereon (1876 chap) anonymous tending to spoof contemporary politics through elaborate parodies and anachronisms. The New Lucian: Being a Series of Dialogues of the Dead (coll of linked stories 1884) makes its satirical points through a sustained reworking of the work ...
Frost, Thomas
(1821-1908) UK author of radical leanings – he was particularly active in the 1840s as a Chartist and as a writer who came close to espousing revolutionary actions – perhaps best known for his first volume of autobiography, Forty Years' Recollections, Literary and Political (1880). The North Pole, and Charlie Wilson's Adventures in Search of It (dated 1876 but 1875) as "By The Author of 'The Realm of the Ice King'" is a ...
Trevor, Ralph
Pseudonym of UK author James Reginald Wilmot (1897-1944), active for nine years as a crime novelist before his early death; he also wrote as by Frances Stuart. He is of minor sf interest for The Ghost Counts Ten (1938), a thriller featuring a heat-melting Ray. [JC]
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 ...