SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Tuesday 13 January 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 12 January 2026
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von Däniken, Erich
(1935-2026) Swiss author of a series of purportedly nonfiction books, beginning with Erinnerungen an die Zukunft (1968; trans Michael Heron as Chariots of the Gods? 1969), which, based on a mass of often suspect and internally inconsistent data, argues that the Earth was visited by at least one Alien spacefaring race before and at the dawn of historical time; thus, for example, the Great Pyramid of ...
Ayrton, Michael
UK journalist, broadcaster, sculptor, painter and author born Michael Ayrton Gould (1921-1975), using his father's surname until adolescence, when he took the surname of his mother the politician Barbara Ayrton (1886-1950), also recognizing in this fashion his grandmother the engineer and mathematician Hertha Ayrton (1854-1923); married to Elisabeth Ayrton from 1952 until his death. He was much respected as an illustrator and stage designer; through much of ...
Skinkle, Dorothy
(1927-1979) US author of an sf novel, Star Giant (1969), in which an Alien exiled to Earth must – like his earlier fellows who impersonated Hercules and Abraham Lincoln and others – make use of his excessive height and superior intellect to defend the planet. [JC]
Future Fire, The
UK-based but otherwise international downloadable Online Magazine edited by Djibril Alayad. It published 21 issues from January 2005 to June 2010 and resumed publication in February 2012 after an eighteen-month hiatus. It originally proclaimed itself "New Writing in Speculative Fiction and Dark Fantasy", though most issues usually carried only one or two stories and the emphasis was on reviews, critical essays and Interviews. ...
Williams, Francis Howard
(1844-1922) US critic and author whose Atman: The Documents in a Strange Case (1891), though its substance could be deemed occultish, has some interest through its structure. Williams himself appears in the tale as the holder of various documents that demonstrate the Psi Powers of the young woman brought to grief by a Mad Scientist, Professor Perdicaris. Metempsychosis is involved. [JC]
Robinson, Roger
(1943- ) UK computer programmer, bibliographer and publisher, active in UK Fandom for many years. The Writings of Henry Kenneth Bulmer (1983 chap; rev 1984 chap) is an exhaustive Bibliography of one of the most prolific sf writers, Kenneth Bulmer, and Who's Hugh?: An SF Reader's Guide to Pseudonyms (1987) is similarly exhaustive in its ...