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.
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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 ...
Marlow, Louis
Pseudonym of UK lecturer in English studies and author Louis Umfreville Wilkinson (1881-1966), active from 1903 or earlier, who also wrote novels under his real name. Of sf interest is The Devil in Crystal (1944) which, in Marlow's typically pert, dandiacal, somewhat overeager manner, describes the effects of a sort of self-possession. The protagonist finds himself Timeslipped twenty years into his own past, where he relives his life (see ...
Rucka, Greg
(1969- ) US author who may be best known for his nonfantastic Atticus Kodiak sequence (not listed below), and in his work of genre interest has concentrated on Ties: to the DC Comics universe, with Batman ties beginning with Batman: No Man's Land (1999) and one to Wonder Woman, Wonder Woman: Down to Earth (graph 2004); and ...
Aaron, Shale
Pseudonym of US teacher and author Robert Boswell (1953- ), whose work under his own name is not of genre interest. Virtual Death (1995), his sf novel as by Aaron, interestingly traverses Cyberpunk tropes; the protagonist, an actor who dies on stage for a living (and is later resuscitated), finds herself implicated in a revolutionary conflict engineered by her mother. Computer viruses enter the ...
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 ...