SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Friday 16 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 14 January 2026
Sponsor of the day: Paul Giamatti
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 ...
Eldridge, E D
(1830-1911) US inventor and author of A Voyage in the Motive Ship Pelican to the North Pole, Captain Solomon, Commander (1908), in which the Airship Pelican flies to the North Pole, where in a clement enclave at least one Utopian City is discovered; the long-lived inhabitants, both black and white, enjoy advanced Technology and other benefits. [JC]
Lee, Fonda
(1979- ) Canadian author, in USA from early adulthood; her first novel, Zeroboxer (2015), is a Young Adult adventure set in a Space Opera universe with Faster Than Light travel, whose young protagonist, a professional athlete (see Games and Sports) whose gladiatorial entrepreneurial skills expose him to a larger world ...
Abe Kōbō
Working name of Japanese author Kimifusa Abe (1924-1993), active from 1948 to the year of his death; several of his later novels have been translated into English. Known mainly for his work outside the sf field, like Suna no Onna (1962; trans E Dale Saunders as The Woman in the Dunes 1964), he was deeply influenced by Western models from Franz Kafka to Samuel Beckett (1906-1989); the intensely extreme conditions to which he subjects ...
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 ...