SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Saturday 29 August 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.
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Martian Manhunter
A DC Comics Superhero created by Joseph Samachson, who first appeared in issue #225 of Detective Comics (1955); in early adventures, he is referred to as J'onn J'onzz, Manhunter from Mars (his Martian name) before his current title became canonical. He is a green-skinned, hairless humanoid who is Teleported from ...
Kawamata Chiaki
(1948- ) Japanese author whose debut work "Shita" ["Tongue"] (January 1972 NW-SF) was published while he was still working as a copywriter at the Advertising agency Hakuhodo. In the same year, he began writing SF criticism with "Ashita wa Docchi da!" ["Which Way is Tomorrow?"], which ran until 1975 in S-F Magazine and was subsequently collated in Yume no Kotoba, Kotoba no Yume ["Words of ...
Oramus, Marek
(1952- ) Polish engineer, journalist, critic and author whose pseudonyms include Ewaryst Gwizdek, Jan Buła, Kunktator and Predator. / As a critic and essayist, Oramus has been highly prolific. From the 1970s he worked as a journalist, often penning Fantastika book reviews. From 1990 he headed the critical section of the leading Polish genre monthly Fantastyka (later ...
Calisher, Hortense
(1911-2009) US author of several Mainstream novels set mostly on the US East Coast and in New York itself, which she rendered with Gothic intensity. After an sf allegory, "In the Absence of Angels" (21 April 1951 The New Yorker), which associates the military occupation of the USA with a poet's own imprisonment, and the very well-known horror story "Heartburn" (January 1951 The American Mercury), came her sf ...
Lamartine, Alphonse De
(1790-1869) French poet and political thinker who probably did not write in 1843 (as claimed by its publisher) the Future History published in English as Time on My Hands (1848); it depicts a complex and somewhat pixilated pattern of confederacies in Europe, with various scientific achievements to boast of, though not clearly. [JC]
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 ...