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Thursday 22 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.
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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 ...
Pendleton, Don
(1927-1995) US author who began publishing work of genre interest with "Boomerang Peep Show" for Ace Magazine in 1958 and whose sf novels – some written as by Dan Britain, and most of them routine – began with Revolt! (1968 as by Britain; rev vt Civil War II: The Day it Finally Happened! 1971 as Pendleton) and The Olympians (1969), both soft porn. Other singletons were Cataclysm: The Day the World Died (1969), ...
Sterling, Brett
A House Name of Better Publications, used originally in the magazines Startling Stories and Captain Future for five short Captain Future novels, three of which – "The Star of Dread" (Captain Future 1943), "Magic Moon" (Captain Future 1944) and "Red Sun of Danger" ( ...
Clark, Jan
(? - ) US author, mainly known for the two volumes of her Prodigy sequences of Space Operas comprising Prodigy (1997) and Earth Herald (1998), featuring Rieka Degahv, female captain of a military spaceship who becomes embroiled in an interstellar intrigue designed to topple a commonwealth of species, in which humans are present but do not dominate. The fast pace and claustrophobic ...
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 ...