SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Thursday 21 May 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 18 May 2026
Sponsor of the day: Conversation 2023
Roy, Archie
Working name of Scottish professor of astronomy Archibald Edmiston Roy (1924-2012), a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and researcher into the paranormal. His nonfiction was welcomed in 1950s UK SF Magazines, in particular his substantial twelve-part series The Way to the Planets for Authentic Science Fiction (June 1955-May 1956); a few such pieces were collaborations with Donald ...
Skidmore, Joseph W
(1890-1938) US author usually considered as producing the worst-written material published in the SF Magazines, though he had some stiff competition. His first story was "Dramatis Personae" (Fall 1931 Amazing Stories Quarterly), where the last two survivors of the human race try to start new life an on alien world. Skidmore was best known, or at least most notorious, for his Posi and Nega series, which is the ...
Biagi, L D
Working name of US author Lottie Biagi (circa 1872-? ); the surname is that of her first husband (married circa 1890), and she later became Lottie F Ambrose on her second marriage in 1912. Her Two Heroes and a Violin: An Extravaganza (1899) is a supernatural fiction. The protagonist of her sf novel The Centaurians (1911) as Biagi travels with his Scientist friend in a torpedo-like ship of the latter's ...
Hagberg, David
(1942-2019) US author who has published prolifically under his own name and various pseudonyms, including David Bannerman, Sean Flannery, David James, Robert Pell and Eric Ramsey, usually thrillers that sometimes venture into Technothriller country, though not into the fantastic as such. He began publishing novels of genre interest with The Capsule (1976), in which a secret Weapon evolved out of the rubble of ...
Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century
British/American/French animated tv series (1999-2001). DiC Productions L.P. and Scottish Television Enterprises. Based on the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Concept by Sandy Ross, Developed by Phil Harnage. Directed by Robert Brousseau and Scott Heming. Writers include Robert Askin and Martha Moran. Voice cast includes Ian James Corlett, Jason Gray-Stanford, Akiko Morison, Richard Newman and John Payne. 26 21-minute episodes. Colour. / New ...
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 (1966-1967), and later in ...