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Saturday 7 November 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 2 November 2026
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Finney, Charles G
(1905-1984) US newspaperman and author – named after but apparently not related to the famous revivalist minister, Charles Grandison Finney (1792-1875) – who spent the years 1927-1929 with the US infantry in Tientsin, China; an oriental influence pervades most of his work. His novels and stories, though Fantasy rather than sf, have been influential throughout the field, especially his famous The Circus of Dr Lao (1935), filmed less than ...
Beese, P J
(1946-2020) US author whose sf novel, The Guardsman (1988) with Todd Cameron Hamilton, is an unremarkable example of interstellar-empire adventure sf in Space Opera vein; its nomination for the 1989 Hugo caused some stir, and there was evidence of block voting. When made aware of this, the authors requested that their novel be withdrawn from the ballot. [JC]
Contact
Film (1997). Warner Bros presents a South Side Amusement Company production. Directed by Robert Zemeckis. Written by James V Hart and Michael Goldenberg, based on Contact (1985) by Carl Sagan and a story by Sagan & Ann Druyan. Cast includes William Fichtner, Jodie Foster, John Hurt, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Skerritt and James Woods. 150 minutes. Colour. / A radio astronomer (Foster) detects a signal ...
Cox, Greg
Working name of US author William Gregory Cox (1959- ), who began to publish work of genre interest with "Empty Screen Lament" for Fantasy Book, May 1983. Most of his fiction comprises Ties to various comics characters; they include Iron Man, beginning with Iron Man: The Armor Trap (1995), and X-Men & Avengers, beginning with ...
Doughty, Francis W
(1850-1917) US numismatist, scholar, screenwriter and author whose well written, ingenious and original dime novels (see Dime-Novel SF) have often been considered the finest examples of the category. His better stories present a succession of highly imaginative strokes, often with good historical backgrounds. The title figure in "The Man in the Black Cloak" (1886 The Boys of New York) as by P T Raymond – a man whose betrayal has turned him ...
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 ...