SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Wednesday 6 December 2023
Welcome to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Fourth Edition. Some sample entries appear below. Click here for the Introduction; here for the masthead; here for 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 4 December 2023
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Compton, D G
(1930-2023) UK author, born of parents who were both in the theatre; he increasingly lived in the USA after 1981. As Guy Compton, he published some unremarkable detective novels, beginning with Too Many Murderers (1962), and as by Frances Lynch produced some nonfantastic Gothics throughout his career; but soon turned to sf with tales almost always set in the Near Future, and anatomizing moral dilemmas within that arena: the future is very clearly ...
Kahn, Herman
(1922-1983) American mathematician, political scientist and high-profile practitioner of Futures Studies. He worked 1947-1959 with the RAND (Research and Development) Corporation, and was subsequently director of the Hudson Institute, a body devoted to forecasting, and producing political, economic and military scenarios of the future. In his day Kahn was one of the most influential and best-known workers in this area, though many argued that the kind of ...
Grey Goo
Popular term (also spelt "gray goo" in the USA) for the nightmare scenario of uncontrolled Nanotechnology in which the hypothetical tiny self-replicators reproduce without limit, converting all available organic matter – or in some cases inorganic matter, or both – into more and yet more devouring grey goo. Such a Disaster is threatened but averted in Assemblers of Infinity (September-December 1992 ...
Rammellzee
(1960-2010) US multi-disciplinary artist whose work covered performance art, rap, graffiti, painting, sculptor and comics. He drew on history, science, sf and popular culture to shape a mythology to inspire his artwork. An African-American/Italian who kept his real name secret, Rammellzee was part of New York's burgeoning rap and graffiti culture as it evolved in the late seventies, becoming a member of the city's underground art scene – which included the likes of Jean-Michel Basquiat, ...
J W M
Pseudonym of the unidentified author (? -? ) of The Coming Cromwell (1871 chap), set in a Near Future Britain in which the eponymous military and political leader conquers the monarchist northlands of Britain on behalf of the republican south, overturning the German monarchy as well en passant; and of The Siege of London: Reminiscences of "Another Volunteer" (1871 chap), which records events ...
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. His first professional publication was the long sf-tinged poem "Carcajou Lament" (Winter 1960 [ie Autumn 1959] Triquarterly), though he only began consistently publishing sf reviews in his "New Fiction" column for the Toronto Star (1966-1967), and sf ...