SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Saturday 24 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 ...
Dynamo
US Comic (1966-1967). Tower Comics. 4 issues. Artists include Steve Ditko, Mike Sekowsky, George Tuska and Wally Wood. Script writers include Dan Adkins, Ralph Reese and Wally Wood. 68 pages, with five long strips each issue. One of two spinoffs from the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents comic (which see for setting details), the other being ...
Obstfeld, Raymond
(1952- ) US author whose work of sf significance is restricted to the Warlord sequence under the House Name Jason Frost, who see for details. [JC]
Fatherland
Made-for-tv film (1994). Home Box Office. Produced by Frederick Muller and Ilene Kahn, directed by Christopher Menaul, screenplay Stanley Weiser and Ron Hutchinson, based on the novel Fatherland (1992) by Robert Harris. Cast includes Rutger Hauer and Miranda Richardson. 106 minutes. Colour. / The year is 1964, the place Berlin, in an Alternate History in which ...
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 ...