SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Wednesday 7 October 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 6 October 2026
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Edwards, Malcolm
(1949-2026) UK editor, critic and publisher, educated at Cambridge, where he graduated in anthropology. Active in UK sf Fandom in the 1970s and early 1980s, he published the first complete text of James Blish's "The Science in Science Fiction" (May 1951-May 1952 Science Fiction Quarterly) in his Fanzine Quicksilver #2 in 1971; edited the ...
Foster, Alex
(? - ) US editor and author who is of sf interest for his first novel, Circular Motion (2025), a Fabulation set in at least initially in a Near Future London, though a device from the SF Megatext – a near-orbit rapid Transportation system – duly scatters the cast. The sf ...
Raumpatrouille: Die phantastischen Abenteuer des Raumschiffes Orion
German tv series (1966), referred to in English as Space Patrol; its full official title translated into English is "Space Patrol: The Fantastic Adventures of the Spaceship Orion". Produced by Bavaria Films for the ARD network. Created by Rolf Honold and Hans Gottschalk. Produced by Gottschalk and Helmut Krapp. Writers were Michael Braun, Gottschalk, Honold, Krapp, Theo Mezger, and Oliver Storz. Directors were Mezger and Braun. Most creative personnel were collectively credited as ...
Forrest, Aston
Pseudonym of the unidentified author (? - ) – probably UK – of the sf tale which makes up the bulk of The Extraordinary Islanders: Being an Authoritative Account of the Cruise of the "Asphodel", as Related by her Owner (coll 1903); his second story, much shorter, is of little sf interest. The sf story is a Satire on the now antiquated version of the Imaginary Voyage ...
Banks, Tony
(1950- ) UK musician, best known as the keyboard-player and founder-member of Genesis, Banks released a number of solo albums, none of which enjoyed commercial success. The first of these, A Curious Feeling (1979), is a concept-album adaptation of Daniel Keyes's Flowers for Algernon (April 1959 F&SF; exp 1966), very Genesis-like in sound, with vocals by ...
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 ...