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Sunday 14 June 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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Duffy, Maureen
(1933-2026) UK author, active from around 1950, several of whose books focused on London, including Capital (1975), a complex set of era-switching meditations – including a Neanderthal man's thoughts about the future – on the deep mythos of the city. The novel influenced Michael Moorcock's Mother London (1988) (as the author acknowledged clearly), and similar later works by Iain ...
Whitmore, Charles
(1945- ) US author whose Winter's Daughter: The Saying of Signe Ragnhilds-Datter (1984) is set in the Near Future at some point after a nuclear World War Three has failed to end civilization entirely; various strategies for survival are tested in Africa, America and (it is from here that the protagonist speaks) Norway. [JC]
Russell, John Robert
(1927-2007) US author who specialized during his brief career in the Planetary Romance: Cabu (1974) translates a man to a violent new life on the planet Cabu, where he uses his knowledge of human Technology and history to change the world for the better, but instead creates fatal dissensions and War; SAR (1974) similarly takes a saddened view of barbarian life in ...
Eita!
Online Magazine from Brazil, whose twelve-strong editorial team published four bilingual issues between 2020 and 2023. The title refers to an interjection that can convey everything from surprise and joy to pity and dismay. / Intended as a vehicle for delivering the latest in Brazilian Portuguese Speculative Fiction to the Anglophone world, Eita! featured many up-and-coming ...
Collins, Bridget
(1981- ) UK actor and author active in the latter capacity, usually as by B R Collins, from the publication of The Traitor Game (2008), the first of several Young Adult novels, some containing fantasy elements. She is of wider interest for her two adult novels. The Binding (2019) is a fantasy about the ability of Story to tell the life of its teller. The Betrayals (2020) is no more fantasy than ...
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 ...