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Friday 14 August 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 10 August 2026
Sponsor of the day: David Cowhig
Crowley, John
(1942-2026) US teacher and author who also worked in documentary films and television for some time beginning in 1966. His sf novels have had a considerable impact on the field, and his fantasies established him as a figure whose work courteously but deeply stretched the boundaries of genre literature. / His first novel, The Deep (1975), is set on a flat discworld resting on a pillar that extends beyond measurement into the circumambient galactic Deep, in which very few stars ...
Zombie 15'
Board Game (2014). Iello. Designed by Guillaume Lémery and Nicolas Schlewitz. / Zombie 15' is one of a series of board games with a Zombie escape theme – players must escape from a Post-Holocaust scenario before they are eaten by a ravening horde. The game is timed, and players have exactly fifteen minutes to win. / Zombie 15' is played on a board composed ...
Religion
Familiar Definitions of SF imply that there is nothing more alien to its concerns than religion. However, many of the roots of Proto SF are embedded in traditions of speculative fiction closely associated with the religious imagination, and contemporary sf recovered a strong interest in certain mystical and transcendental themes and images when it moved beyond the Taboos imposed by the ...
Southall, Ivan
(1921-2008) Australian soldier and author, of sf interest for the Simon Black Young Adult sequence, beginning with his first published book, Meet Simon Black (1950; cut 1957), in which Squadron Leader Black leaves the service after World War Two and creates a rocket-powered supersonic VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Land) aircraft (see Inventions); Black improves this vehicle ...
O'Loughlin, Ed
(1966- ) Canadian journalist and author, some of whose earlier novels verge into Technothriller country but are not fantastic. His fourth novel, the very Near Future This Eden (2021), is of sf interest for its depiction of a world where games (see Games and Sports) do not only reflect reality but increasingly create the world. ...
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 ...