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Saturday 1 April 2023
Welcome to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Fourth Edition. Some sample entries appear below. Click here for the Introduction; here for the masthead; here for 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.
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Thomas, D M
(1935-2023) UK poet and author who made use of sf themes most explicitly in such early Poetry as "The Head-Rape" in New Worlds for March 1968 and the two-part "Computer 70: Dreams & Lovepoems" (March-April 1970 New Worlds), a sequence assembled with other poetry of interest in Logan Stone (coll 1970); or the later "S. F." (in The Umbral Anthology of Science Fiction Poetry, anth ...
O'Sheel, Shaemas
(1886-1954) US journalist, poet and author born James Shields, who changed his name as a very young man to its Irish equivalent. He is of sf interest for It Never Could Happen; Or, the Second American Revolution (1932), a future history Future History presented as the 1982 memoir of a key conspirator in the revolution of 1932, which begins in the very Near Future of that year, as the historical "Bonus ...
Dahlin, Allyson
(? - ) US author whose first novel, Cake Eater (2022), aspires to a comic retelling, in an Alternate History future a millenium hence, of the "romantic" life and love experiences of Marie Antoinette (1755-1793). [JC]
Speight, T W
(1830-1915) UK railway company executive and author; of his many novels and tales, The Strange Experiences of Mr Verschoyle: Told by Himself and Edited by T W Speight (1901) is of sf interest as a tale of Identity Transfer, a technique utilized by a venomous young man to revenge himself on the family that had thwarted his marital ambitions. The Grey Monk (1895) is a ghost story. [JC]
Carr, Caleb
(1955- ) US scriptwriter and author whose nonfiction, mostly on military matters, culminated in The Lessons of Terror: A History of Warfare Against Civilians; Why It Has Always Failed (2002), which advocates preemptive strikes against nations deemed to support terrorists; his optimistic take on the consequences of such actions makes this a historical document of some interest. He is best known for The Alienist (1994) and its sequel, ...
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. His first professional publication was the long sf-tinged poem "Carcajou Lament" (Winter 1960 [ie Autumn 1959] Triquarterly), though he only began publishing sf reviews in 1964 and sf proper with "A Man Must Die" in New Worlds for ...