SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Saturday 11 July 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 7 July 2026
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Morris, Jan
(1926-2020) UK travel writer and historian, from just after World War Two until the mid-1970s as James Morris; A Venetian Bestiary (1982) is fantasticated within its conventional frame, but she is of genuine sf interest for Last Letters from Hav (1985; exp vt as coll, Hav 2006). In the 1985 iteration, a travel writer named Morris sojourns in the vastly intricate Middle Eastern peninsula and City called Hav, a ...
Ashby, Richard
(? - ) US author who began publishing fiction of genre interest with "A Joke for Harry" in Amazing for September 1949, and who published short fiction actively for several years. His sf novel, Act of God (December 1951-January 1952 Other Worlds; exp 1971), concerns a conspiracy in 2002 to deprive the one man who has gained Immortality of his powerful ...
Spurrier, Simon
(1981- ) UK Comics writer and author, his work as writer in the former capacity including many 2000 AD and Judge Dredd scripts, plus scripts for other comics; his novel Prophet Margin (2006) is a Tie to the 2000 AD universe. Much of his prose fiction has comprised stories and novels for the ...
Mitchell, Clyde
A Ziff-Davis House Name, 1956-1957, used twice by Robert Silverberg and Randall Garrett in collaboration, twice by Henry Slesar (confirmed by Slesar himself), and once by Harlan Ellison on "The Wife Factory" (November 1957 Fantastic). [PN/MA]
Explorers
Film (1985). Edward S Feldman/Paramount. Directed by Joe Dante. Written by Eric Luke. Cast includes Ethan Hawke, River Phoenix and Jason Presson. 109 minutes. Colour. / Three schoolboys (Hawke, Phoenix, Presson), tipped off by a dream, employ a Computer to help create a sphere that can move very quickly and is impervious to Gravity; they use it to power a ...
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 ...