SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Sunday 13 July 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.
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Wu Yan
(1962- ) Chinese author, Beijing-born but of Manchu ethnicity, whose education encompassed psychology and a management PhD, and whose work includes the teaching of science fiction at Beijing Normal University. His first story, "Adventure in an Iceberg" (1978 Shaonian Kexue), was published when he was only 16, establishing him as an author before the academic career that truly supported him. Wu Yan has often appeared in ...
Saxton, Mark
(1914-1988) US editor and author who, as an editor (1938-1943) at Farrar and Rinehart, helped Austin Tappan Wright's daughter, Sylvia Wright, edit the massive manuscript of Islandia, which his firm published in 1942. Saxton worked as an editor for the rest of his career. As an author, he produced some detective fiction, beginning with Danger Road (1939), though his sf was confined to the Islandia world, for which he wrote ...
Russell, G Warren
(1854-1937) UK-born journalist, publisher, politician and author, in New Zealand by 1865, now remembered primarily for his controversial role in the Spanish influenza epidemic of 1918, when as the government minister responsible he (correctly) allowed a passenger liner to dock in Auckland, an action which (incorrectly) was thought to have deepened the medical crisis. His only novel, A New Heaven (written circa 1902; 1919), is a Utopia set in a ...
Passing Show, The
UK weekly paper of humour and short fiction which had two distinct incarnations, both published by Odhams Press, London. The first series ran for 918 issues from 20 March 1915 to 19 March 1932. This was a small tabloid-size magazine, initially with wartime paper restrictions, that gradually grew in size to become a standard tabloid from January 1924. The emphasis was on cartoons and brief humorous stories, but it occasionally ran to longer items and is probably best remembered, in this ...
Dollhouse
US tv series (2009-2010). Mutant Enemy Productions and Boston Diva Productions for Fox. Created by Joss Whedon. Producers include Whedon, Tim Minear, Chris Cheramie, Eliza Dushku and Kelly A Manners. Writers include Whedon, Andrew Chambliss, Maurissa Tancharoen, Jed Whedon, Tracy Bellomo, and Jane Espenson. Directors include Whedon, Minear, David Solomon, and David Straiton. Cast includes Eliza Dushku as Echo/Caroline, Olivia Williams as Adelle DeWitt, ...
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 ...