SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Tuesday 9 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.
Site updated on 8 June 2026
Sponsor of the day: The League of Fan Funds
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 ...
Ferguson, Neil
(1947- ) UK author who began publishing sf with "The Monroe Doctrine" for Interzone, Winter 1983/1984, and through the 1980s released several sharply conceived tales, revealing more than once a deep interest in US life. / His first book, Bars of America (coll 1986), not sf, is a collection of tales and musings set in the heart of that country. His first sf novel, Putting Out (1988), presents a ...
Common Side Effects
US animated tv series (2025). Green Street Pictures. Created by Joseph Bennett and Steve Hely. Directed by Camille Bozec, Sean Buckelew and Vincent Tsui. Writers include Steve Hely. Voice cast includes Joseph Lee Anderson, Danny Huston, Mike Judge, Martha Kelly, Dave King, Emily Pendergast and Sue Rose. Ten 23-minute episodes. Colour. / After protesting the environmental damage (see Ecology) in Peru caused by pharmaceutical company Reutical, Marshall Cuso ...
Front Mission
Videogame series (from 1999). Initially Square (SQ), later Square Enix (SE). Designed by Toshiro Tsuchida. / Front Mission is a series of Console Role Playing Games (see Computer Role Playing Games) which emphasize turn-based tactical combat and strong, often multilinear, plots (see Interactive Narrative). To date, only three members of the main series have been ...
Man with the Power, The
Made-for-tv film (1977). Universal Television for NBC-TV. Produced by Allan Baltar and Rod Holcombe. Directed by Nicholas Sgarro. Written by Baltar. Cast includes Persis Khambatta, Bob Neil and Tim O'Connor. 93 minutes. Colour. / US government agent Walter Bloom (O'Connor) recruits Eric Smith (Neil) to help foil an assassination plot against the visiting Indian princess Siri (Khambatta). Smith's father, it is revealed, was actually an Alien from an ...
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 ...