SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Friday 23 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 19 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 ...
Beetlestone, Susan
(? - ) UK author who began publishing work of genre interest with "Face Lift" in Interzone for November/December 1988; the Satirical approach to Near Future issues of Identity in this tale has, variously expressed, governed the remainder of her work, through which can also be seen an informed interest in ...
Perkins, Michael
(1942- ) US author and poet, whose erotic sf novels for Essex House (see Sex) included Evil Companions (1968) and Terminus (1969). [JC]
Lyon, Richard K
(1933-2008) US physicist, engineer and author who began to publish work of genre interest with the spoofish Lost World spy adventure "The City of Ul Chalan" in Analog for July 1973. His first novel was The Demon in the Mirror (1978) with Andrew J Offutt, opening the collaborative Fantasy trilogy War of the Wizards. Also with Offutt, Lyon published ...
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 ...