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Friday 16 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 14 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 ...
Adams, Scott
(1957-2026) US author and cartoonist best known for the Dilbert strip published from 1989, which when at its best superbly (in terms of concept and accuracy of Satire rather than quality of drawing) satirized contemporary office life and corporate incompetence. As with most ambitious modern comic strips, it segues frequently into sf and fantasy tropes – such as Robot office workers, wish-fulfilling ...
Lorrah, Jean
(1940- ) US academic – professor of English at Murray State University in Kentucky – and author. For the sf reader her writing career has perhaps seemed to lack focus, being broken into three areas of concentration. After fan involvement in the Star Trek Open Universe. beginning with Full Moon Rising (coll 1976 chap) and The Night of the Twin Moons (1976), she began to publish generally ...
Viper
US tv series (1994; 1996-1999). Paramount Network Television/Paramount Domestic Television/Pet Fly Productions for NBC-TV/Syndicated. Created by Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo. Produced by Robert Benjamin, David L Beanes, Barbara Kelly, Michael Lacoe. Directors included Bruce Bilson, Gus Trikonis, Michael Vejar. Writers included Danny Bilson, Bruce Bilson, David Newman, Howard Chaykin, Andrew W Marlowe. Cast includes Dorian Harewood, Jeff Kaake, ...
Dane, Joel
Undisclosed pseudonym for their sf of a presumably US author (? - ), who also writes as by Joel Ross (fantasy) and Joel Naftali (for younger readers), all these aliases specifically linked by the use of the same given name. It is an unconfirmed speculation that the author is in fact Joel Shepherd, whose work, especially his Military SF, bears a reasonable resemblance to work under these ...
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 ...