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Saturday 14 March 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 9 March 2026
Sponsor of the day: Paul Giamatti
Bjerke, Tore
(1942- ) Norwegian amateur astronomer and author of realistic sf dealing with Space Flight. He did not write many books, but Rendezvous (1970) in particular was one of the notable astronomically correct novels of the 1970s. More or less forgotten today, it was announced as "a thriller in the international diplomatic environment" – not regarded as sf by the publisher, although it clearly was. ...
Nebula
Sf Award given since 1966 by Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (prior to 1992, Science Fiction Writers of America). The idea of funding such an award from the royalties of an annual Nebula Anthology of award-winning short fiction was proposed in 1965 by SFWA's then secretary-treasurer, Lloyd Biggle Jr. The awards are made in the spring and, unlike the ...
Shegelski, Mark R A
(1957- ) Canadian physicist, teacher and author whose first book, Remembering the Future (coll of linked stories 2009), ingeniously deploys problems in Physics and other sciences as challenges to the protagonist of the tales here assembled; he has discovered that he suffers from a form of Precognition, so that he finds himself (as it were) in the "past" of future events he might wish to change. ...
2001: A Space Odyssey
1. Film (1968). Produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick. Written by Kubrick, Arthur C Clarke, based very loosely on Clarke's "The Sentinel" (Spring 1951 10 Story Fantasy as "Sentinel of Eternity"; vt in Expedition to Earth, coll 1953). Cast includes Keir Dullea, Leonard Rossiter, Gary Lockwood, Douglas Rain and William Sylvester. 141 minutes, cut from 160 ...
Stover, Matthew
(1962- ) US author who began to publish work of genre interest under his full name Matthew Woodring Stover with the Barra the Pict Fantasy diptych comprising Iron Dawn (1997) and Jericho Moon (1998). Of sf interest is the Acts of Caine sequence opening with Heroes Die (1998), in which a future corporate Dystopian Earth exploits a fantasy ...
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 ...