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Monday 16 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 16 March 2026
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Dietz, William C
(1945-2026) US author who began to publish sf with War World (1986; vt Galactic Bounty 1997), the first volume of his Sam McCade sequence of sf adventures about an interstellar bounty hunter, which continued with Imperial Bounty (1988) and two further titles. The galactic venue of the series exhibits some interesting kinks, and McCade himself gradually gains individuality. Although the angle of approach differs – the protagonist this time ...
Bluejay
Pseudonym of US author Terry Woodrow (? - ), who also edited Lesbian Bedtime Stories (anth 1991). Her sf novel It's Time: A Nuclear Novel (1985) is bylined "Jana Bluejay" on the front cover and copyright page but "Bluejay" only on the title page. The book describes an agrarian feminist Utopia whose existence is constantly under threat from a surrounding oppressive state. [JC]
Spider-Man 3
Film (2007). Columbia Pictures presents a Marvel Studios/Laura Ziskin production. Directed by Sam Raimi. Written by Sam & Ivan Raimi and Alvin Sargent; story by Raimi & Raimi, based on the Marvel Comic by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Cast includes Elizabeth Banks, Thomas Haden Church, James Cromwell, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Topher Grace, Rosemary Harris, Bryce Dallas Howard, Tobey ...
Lang, Fritz
(1890-1976) Austrian film-maker who, after trouble with the Nazis, left Germany for France in 1933 and emigrated to the USA in 1934. He was originally trained as an architect but preferred the graphic arts; during the years before World War One he supported himself as a cartoonist and caricaturist. He turned to writing after being wounded during the conflict, producing several popular thrillers and fantasy romances. After 1918 he ...
Ziff-Davis
US magazine publishing house, notionally founded in 1927 (but see below) and based in Chicago until 1950, then New York. The parent company was the William B Ziff Company, which began as an advertising agency in 1920, acquired a Chicago publishing house in 1993, and after early humorous magazine ventures – during which Bernard George Davis (1906-1972) joined William Bernard Ziff Sr (1898-1953) as principal editor – began to publish Popular Aviation in 1927. The advertising ...
Clute, John
(1940- ) Canadian critic, editor and author, in the UK from 1969; married to Judith Clute from 1964, partner of Elizabeth Hand since 1996. He began to publish work of genre interest with an sf-tinged poem "Carcajou Lament" in Triquarterly for Winter 1960 [ie Autumn 1959]; he began consistently publishing sf reviews in his "New Fiction" column for the Toronto Star (1966-1967), and later in ...