SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Tuesday 17 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 16 February 2026
Sponsor of the day: Andy Richards of Cold Tonnage Books
Hoban, Russell
(1925-2011) US-born illustrator and author, in the UK from 1969. After serving in World War Two, he worked in advertising and television until the mid-1960s, becoming a full-time writer in 1967. Most of his many titles are children's books, at least fifty of them being illustrated texts for younger children, like the first, What Does It Do and How Does It Work? (1959), or the Frances sequence beginning with Bedtime for Frances (1960 chap), or (to mention only ...
Discovery
This thematic topic is closely linked with the broader subject of Invention (which see), since the discovery of a new principle is usually followed – often in sf, with implausible speed – by the invention of a means of exploiting it. The discovery of new places is dealt with various other entries including Colonization of Other Worlds, Lost Worlds (very often containing ...
Thomas, Sue
(1951- ) UK author whose sf novel, Correspondence (1992), is a complexly crafted presentation of a range of interweaving material, with regard to which a number of correspondences can be contemplated. The protagonist, having been transformed into a Cyborg, has developed software which allows her interact directly with her audience in the telling of her fantasies; within the frame of this ...
Apex Magazine
An initially low-paying magazine originally published as a review-size Print Magazine titled Apex Digest, which then went through an incarnation as a fortnightly cumulative Online Magazine before re-emerging as a monthly downloadable online magazine, paying professional rates, as Apex Magazine. It was published and originally edited by Jason Sizemore but from August 2010 was edited by Catherynne M ...
Gombrowicz, Witold
(1904-1969) Polish playwright, essayist and author whose work was not directly connected with Genre SF, though he occasionally utilized fantastic elements; his impact on Polish literature (see Poland) was unprecedented both at the level of his highly original narrative technique, for which he derived idiosyncratic diminutive forms and neologisms, and a consistent philosophy, at some points evoking associations with existentialism, ...
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 ...