SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Saturday 15 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 10 August 2026
Sponsor of the day: Paul Giamatti
Crowley, John
(1942-2026) US teacher and author who also worked in documentary films and television for some time beginning in 1966. His sf novels have had a considerable impact on the field, and his fantasies established him as a figure whose work courteously but deeply stretched the boundaries of genre literature. / His first novel, The Deep (1975), is set on a flat discworld resting on a pillar that extends beyond measurement into the circumambient galactic Deep, in which very few stars ...
Biss, Gerald
(1876-1922) UK journalist with a particular interest in motoring or "automobilism" (his coinage), and a prolific author, active from 1901 or earlier; he began to publish of serial stories syndicated in many newspapers worldwide, five of which subsequently appeared as hardback thriller novels. The earliest known serialization venues are given here but may not be reliable. Biss's second novel The White Rose Mystery (1904 Falkirk Herald as "The White Rose"; 1907) is arguably ...
Last Man on Earth, The
US silent film (1924). Fox Film Corporation. Directed by John G Blystone. Written by Donald W Lee. Based on "The Last Man on Earth" (November 1923 Munsey's Magazine) by John D Swain. Cast includes Earle Foxe, Martha Mattox and Derelys Perdue. 70 minutes. Black and white. / Though at least two copies of this film survive and it has occasionally been shown at exhibitions, it is not generally available. The main ...
Niesewand, Peter
(1944-1983) South African-born journalist and author, in the UK after 1973; his reporting of the political situation in what was then Rhodesia, and his imprisonment there, are well-remembered. Of sf interest is Fallback (1982), a Technothriller in which a Computer expert involved in medical research is transformed into a Cyborg in order to prevent ...
Zone Troopers
Film (1985). Altar/Empire. Executive producer Charles Band. Directed by Danny Bilson. Written by Bilson, Paul DeMeo. Cast includes Art La Fleur, Biff Maynard, Tim Thomerson and Timothy Van Patten. 86 minutes. Colour. / This curious, small, honest film is perhaps as close as the cinema has ever got to the flavour of Pulp sf. Three GIs and a war correspondent are trapped behind German lines in Italy in 1944. In between repeated ...
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 ...