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Monday 13 April 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 6 April 2026
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Skolsky, Syd
(1917-1998) US author, mostly on musical subjects; her sf novel, The Affectionism Society: A Love Story in a Futuristic Setting (1977), is a Near Future First Contact tale in which humans and the Alien Vars begin to understand each other through the problematics of Sex. [JC]
John Carter: Warlord of Mars
Board and counter Wargame (1979). Simulations Publications Inc. Designed by Mark Herman, Eric Goldberg. / While most easily classified as a Wargame, John Carter is actually a fusion of several types of game which have followed generally separate paths of development since its release. Specifically, it combines many of the attributes of Board Games, Wargames and ...
McKean, Dave
Working name of British artist David Jeff McKean (1963- ), primarily known for his work in Comics and Graphic Novels, though he has also painted book covers and engaged in other activities. After attending Berkshire College of Art and Design from 1982 to 1986, McKean visited New York to seek work in the comics field and met Neil Gaiman, forming a friendship that would be central ...
Minnett, Cora
Pseudonym of Australian actress and author Minnie Warren Jones (1868-? ), who also wrote as Pellew Hawker; in England from 1910 until at least 1918, when [according to Steve Holland's researches; see under links below] all trace of her is lost. According to Holland's research, she seems to have been a confidence artist, selling non-existent or misdescribed Australian plots of land to English victims. Of sf interest is one novel, ...
Dreadstone, Carl
A House Name used for a short-lived 1977 series of six Berkley Medallion paperbacks based on classic Universal Horror films. Known users of the Dreadstone pseudonym are Ramsey Campbell with three titles and Walter Harris with two. The latter's initial contribution – sometimes erroneously credited to Campbell – was a second novel ...
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 ...