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Thursday 16 July 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 14 July 2026
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Glavinic, Thomas
(1972- ) Austrian author whose novels range widely in subject matter and treatment, and whose fifth book-length fiction, Die Arbeit der Nacht (2006; trans John Brownjohn as Night Work 2008), is a Last Man tale set initially in Vienna after an inexplicable Disaster has stripped the City – and it turns out the world – of ...
Bynner, Edwin Lassetter
(1842-1893) US historical author whose The Chase of the Meteor and Other Stories (coll 1891) presents for a young audience various fantastical tales, most notably the Flatland story "A Cruise in a Soap Bubble", which takes off from Edwin A Abbott's Flatland (1884). [JC]
Flash Comics
US Comic (1940-1949). DC Comics. 104 issues. Artists include Stan Asch, Homer Fleming, Frank Harry, E E Hibbard, Harry Lampert, Sheldon Moldoff, Dennis Neville and Ed Wheelan. Scriptwriters include Gardner Fox, Evelyn Gaines, Harry Lampert, John Wentworth and Ed Wheelan. Initially 68 pages, down to 52 by the end of its run. Usually 5-6 long strips and a short text story per issue, plus occasional shorts ...
Steber, A R
A House Name initially used 1938-1945 in the Ziff-Davis magazines, mostly in Amazing Stories. The primary user was Raymond A Palmer, once in collaboration with Joseph J Millard and once with John Russell Fearn writing as Thornton Ayre; the first Steber story, by Palmer solo, was "The Blinding ...
Wheeler, Paul
(1934-2025) Jamaican-born UK screenwriter and author in whose The Friendly Persuaders (1968) benign-seeming Aliens from the planet Tarax appear in London and, offering promises of universal peace and free love, are soon swept into governmental power by a surge of popular acclaim. Inevitably this low-key Invasion conceals a more sinister agenda; one man's dogged resistance leads to revelations and ...
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 ...