SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Tuesday 8 July 2025
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 7 July 2025
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Hayes, Charles Douglas
(1943- ) US author of Portals in a Northern Sky (2002), a Time Viewer tale set in Alaska, through which the protagonists watch the past: out of which comes danger. [JC]
Colander, Valerie Nieman
(1955- ) US newspaper editor, poet and author known mostly for her Young Adult novel, Neena Gathering (1988), set with some effectiveness in a balkanized post-Disaster America, though much that might seem innovative here is borrowed fairly directly from other tales set in what has become a very familiar venue. In this context, the heroine comes of age. The book was reissued under the byline ...
Brownjohn, Alan
(1931-2024) UK poet, politician, teacher, man-of-letters and author, who began to publish work of genre interest with "A Contest in Crime" in Young Winter's Tales 2 (anth 1971) edited by M R Hodgkin; he also wrote as by John Berrington. His poetry – and relatively infrequent fiction – was irradiated by a wry, compassionate, occasionally bitter socialist perspective on the course of British history; in this he was like and unlike Philip Larkin (1922-1985), as ...
Fan Language
Sf enthusiasts, in common with other groups, have evolved their own terminology and usage. This language comprises words and phrases used in the writing of sf itself and also the more arcane and whimsical jargon of Fandom and Fanzines. / Most sf readers are familiar with the shorthand of their literature, and words like Spaceship, Robot, ...
Willets, Gilson
(1869-1922) US journalist, screenwriter and author of a romantic adventure, The Double Cross: A Romance of Mystery and Adventure in Mexico of To-Day (1910), which incorporates a relatively innocent She figure, and hints of a Lost World in the background. It was filmed with his script as The Mystery of the Double Cross (1917) directed by Louis J Gasnier and William J Parke, a nine-part action serial lasting 350 ...
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 ...