SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Tuesday 20 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
Sponsor of the day: Andy Richards of Cold Tonnage Books
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 ...
Nevala-Lee, Alec
(1980- ) US author who began to publish work of genre interest with "Inversus" in Analog for January-February 2004, and who has been associated with that magazine for most of his career, publishing there several supple Hard SF tales. His first series, the Icon Thief sequence [not listed below], focuses on nonfantastic detections that almost enter Technothriller country. He is ...
Willard, T A
(1862-1943) US inventor, musician, entrepreneur and author of two Lost Race tales. In The Wizard of Zacna: A Lost City of the Mayas (1929), an ancient man tells the narrator of his experiences as a youth in a lost world dominated by a blonde princess who enthrals him (see She), though a brunette princess truly loves him (which kills her). Bride of the Rain God: Princess of Chichen-Itza, the Sacred City of the Incas ...
Litmus
UK space-rock band, whose only release to date, You Are Here (2004) styles its title and cover-art in homage to Douglas Adams's Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Musically the band is very reminiscent of Hawkwind's expansive and more cosmically evocative style. [AR]
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 ...