SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Thursday 22 January 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 19 January 2026
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von Däniken, Erich
(1935-2026) Swiss author of a series of purportedly nonfiction books, beginning with Erinnerungen an die Zukunft (1968; trans Michael Heron as Chariots of the Gods? 1969), which, based on a mass of often suspect and internally inconsistent data, argues that the Earth was visited by at least one Alien spacefaring race before and at the dawn of historical time; thus, for example, the Great Pyramid of ...
Adams, Scott
(1957-2026) US author and cartoonist best known for the Dilbert strip published from 1989, which when at its best superbly (in terms of concept and accuracy of Satire rather than quality of drawing) satirized contemporary office life and corporate incompetence. As with most ambitious modern comic strips, it segues frequently into sf and fantasy tropes – such as Robot office workers, wish-fulfilling ...
Green, A Lincoln
Pseudonym of the UK author eventually identified in David Finkelstein's Index to Blackwood's Magazine, 1901-1980 (1995) as the physician, paediatrician and evolutionist Louis Robinson (1857-1928). His literary activity as A Lincoln Green seems to have been restricted to one year, beginning with "The Captivity of the Professor" (February 1901 Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine), in which an entomologist is captured by a species of evolved Ants (see ...
Elliot from Earth
British animated tv series (2021-current). Cartoon Network Studios Europe. Created by Guillaume Cassuto, Mic Graves and Tony Hull. Directed by Rhys Byfield and Mikey Please. Writers include Guillaume Cassuto, Mic Graves, Tony Hull, Joe Markham, Daran Johnson and Joe Parham. Voice cast includes Noah Bentley, Samuel Faraci, Kate Harbour and Naomi McDonald. Sixteen 11-minute episodes. Colour. / Geologist Frankie (McDonald) believes the lack of a fusion crust on a rock found in ...
Merle, Robert
(1908-2004) Algerian-born French author, in France from 1918, recipient of the Prix Goncourt in 1949, known primarily for his work outside the sf field. His Un animal doué de raison (1967; trans Helen Weaver as The Day of the Dolphin 1969) is an ingenious examination of scientific and political ethics following the main character's breakthrough in Communication with Dolphins, along the lines ...
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 ...