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Friday 13 June 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 9 June 2025
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Longyear, Barry B
(1942-2025) US author and editor who ran a printing company with his wife before beginning to write in 1977, beginning to publish work of genre interest with "The Tryouts" in Asimov's for November/December 1978. Before his 1981 hospitalization for alcoholism and addiction to prescription drugs – an experience which formed the basis of his non-sf novel Saint Mary Blue (1988) – he had already published prolifically, sometimes as by Frederick ...
Pertwee, Roland
(1885-1963) UK actor, playwright, screenwriter, painter and author, related to many Pertwees, including his son Jon Pertwee (1919-1996), an early Doctor Who (see Doctor Who); in active service during World War One. His Near Future Scientific Romance, MW.XX.3. (1929; vt Hell's Loose 1929; vt The Million Pound Cypher ...
Katō Naoyuki
(1952- ) Japanese artist whose name is sometimes romanized as Naoyuki Katoh; of interest largely for book covers and internal Illustration. He has exerted a strong influence on sf's self-perception in Japan, both within prose fiction and in the related fields of Anime and Manga. Katō became active in fandom while still a student at the Chiyoda Design ...
Starfall
Role Playing Game (2015). Wordplay Games. Written by Paul Mitchener, based on the Wordplay game system by Graham Spearing. / Small Press Horror in SF roleplaying game that mines the transition of the gritty, pessimistic tenor (see Optimism and Pessimism) of the UK-specific ...
Neill, A S
(1883-1973) UK educationist, in active service during World War One, who gained fame for revolutionary theories about the teaching of children and who cofounded the International School – which operated initially on the Continent from 1921, then (from 1924) under the name Summerhill in the UK – to put them into practice. Fictionalized accounts like A Dominie's Log (1916) and its sequels popularized his arguments, and his ...
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 ...