SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Wednesday 14 May 2025
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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Fabian, Stephen E
(1930-2025) American artist, sometimes credited as Steve Fabian or simply Fabian. The self-trained Fabian first worked as an electronic engineer, but he began contributing art to Fanzines in the late 1960s and became a full-time professional artist in 1973. He did a number of covers and interior art for SF Magazines, mostly Amazing, Fantastic, and ...
Conquistador de la Luna
["Conqueror of the Moon"] Mexican film (1960; vt The Astronauts). Producciones Sotomayor. Directed by Rogelio A González. Written by José Maria Fernández Unsáin and Francisco Verala. Cast includes Antonio "Clavillazo" Espino, Ramiro Gamboa, Alicia Moreno, Alberto Pedret, Ana Luisa Peluffo, Óscar Ortiz de Pinedo, Alejandro Reyna and Andrés Soler. 80 minutes. Black and white. / As a ...
Levin, Ira
(1929-2007) US playwright and author whose first book, A Kiss Before Dying (1953), is an extremely impressive chiller. He is best known for the horror tale Rosemary's Baby (1967), in which the Devil impregnates a young woman; the book was filmed by Roman Polanski as Rosemary's Baby (1968); the sequel, Son of Rosemary (1997), is weak. Levin moved into sf proper with This Perfect Day (1970), a ...
Laporta, Mark
(? - ) US author whose first works were for Young Adult readers, beginning with the Changing Hearts of Ixdahan Daherek sequence, whose eponymous protagonist in the first volume Heart of Earth (2015) finds himself exiled from his home planet – for acts of arrogance and stupidity – and forced to live on Earth as a teenager. Fortunately, he fends of an Invasion by ...
Liang Qichao
(1873-1929) Chinese historian, author and politician intimately involved with the reform movement of China's late imperial era. A proponent of constitutional monarchy rather than outright revolution, he was inspired by the work of Edward Bellamy and the Japanese author Tetchō Suehiro to frame his ideas in Xin Zhongguo Weilai ji ["An Account of New China's Future"] (1902 Xin Xiaoshuo) ...
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 ...