SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Monday 5 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 5 October 2026
Sponsor of the day: Andy Richards of Cold Tonnage Books
Treasure Island in Outer Space
Italian/German/French tv mini-series (1987; original title L'isola del tesoro; vt Space Island). Bavaria Film, RAI Radiotelevisione Italiana, TF1 Films Production. Directed by Antonio Margheriti. Written by Lucio De Caro and Renato Castellani. Cast includes Ernest Borgnine, Philippe Leroy, Klaus Löwitsch, Andy Luotto, Itaco Nardulli, Anthony Quinn and David Warbeck. Five or seven episodes (depending on country) totalling 350 minutes. Colour. / Margheriti had ...
Westerns
The Western is dead: to begin with. In its pure form, unlike other genres of popular fiction, nonfantastic Westerns, also known as horse operas from the teens of the twentieth century, take place in a specific area or Zone of the world during the brief span between that point when whites began to conquer the Territory and that point when, fatally, they succeeded. The first Western stories, James Fenimore Cooper's nonfantastic ...
Bolt, Morgan J
(1991-2018) US author whose early (and soon fatal) experience with cancer is recorded in Cancer Just Is: Confessions of a 20-Something Exploring His Illness, Faith and Culture (2018). The Young Adult Tamyth trilogy, beginning with The Rise of Gnurlbane (2013), is fantasy, notable for its geographical sweep and a complexly diversified cast. He is of sf interest for The Favored (2018), a ...
Clark, Simon
(1958- ) UK author, principally of Horror, who began to publish work of genre interest with "A Letter from John Shaw" in Dark Dreams #2 for Spring 1985 and has been a prolific author of short fiction ever since, with many of his stories (often set in his native Yorkshire) assembled as collections beginning with Blood & Grit (coll 1990; exp vt Blood and Grit 21 2011) [for further titles see Checklist ...
Summer Hikaru Died, The
Japanese animated tv series (2025-current; original title Hikaru ga Shinda Natsu). Cygames Pictures. Based on the Manga by Mokumokuren. Directed and written by Ryōhei Takeshita. Voice cast includes Yumiri Hanamori, Chiaki Kobayashi, Chikahiro Kobayashi, Wakana Kowaka and Shūichirō Umeda. Twelve 23-minute episodes to date. Colour. / The god (see Gods and Demons) Nonuki-sama ...
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 ...