SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Thursday 6 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.
Site updated on 3 August 2026
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Defenders of the Earth
US animated tv series (1986-1991). Marvel Productions/King Features Entertainment for the Fox Television Network. Created by Gerry Conway, Ross Andru and John Romita Sr. Produced by John Ahern, Bill Hutten, Tony Love, Don Sheppard, others. Directors included John Gibbs, Ray Lee, and Will Meugniot. Writers included Chris Bunch, Arthur Byron Cover, Mark Edward Edens, Mel ...
Forrest, Katherine V
(1939- ) Canadian-born author, in the USA for many years, who began to publish works of genre interest with "Xessex" in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction for February 1983 as by M Catherine McKinley; with other early work it was assembled as Dreams and Swords (coll 1987). She is the author of the Kate Delafield thriller series (not listed below), but is of sf interest primarily for ...
Sears, Richard
(? - ) US journalist, counsellor and author of First Born (2000), in which an Alien entity, possibly descended to America by flying saucer (see UFOs), seems to have been implanting its seed in human women; hunted by Neo Tech arm of the government, for its own purposes. The unusual child itself survives, and may take us in hand. Last Day (2001), though its storyline is not ...
Ridyard, Jennifer
(1971- ) UK-born author, copywriter and journalist, in South Africa from an early age and working for newspapers there 1994-2004; more recently in Ireland with her partner, John Connolly. She has collaborated with Connolly on a Young Adult sf sequence, The Chronicles of the Invaders series beginning with Conquest (2013) [for details see his entry]. [JC]
Randall, Neil
(? - ) Canadian academic at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, and author who has written extensively about real-world computers and the Internet [titles not listed below]. Of genre interest are his Gamebooks: Storm of Dust (1987), a Tie to David Drake's Dragon Lord fantasy sequence, and two ties to Roger ...
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 ...