SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Saturday 24 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 ...
Doomwatch
1. UK tv series (1970-1972). BBC TV. Produced by Terence Dudley. Series devised and partly written by Gerry Davis and Kit Pedler. Directors included Dudley, Jonathan Alwyn, David Proudfoot, Lennie Mayne, Eric Hills, Darrol Blake. Further writers included Dudley, John Gould, Brian Hayles, Don Shaw, Dennis Spooner, Martin Worth. Cast included Joby Blanchard, Wendy Hall, Simon Oates, John Paul, Robert Powell, Jean Trend ...
Mystery in Space
US Comic (first run 1951-1966). DC Comics. Publication varied between monthly and bimonthly. Editor Julius Schwartz. Writers included Otto Binder, John Broome, Bill Finger, Gardner F Fox, and Edmond Hamilton. Artists included Murphy Anderson, Sid Greene, Gil Kane, Carmino Infantino, and Bob Oskner. ...
Christopher, Edgar Earl
(? -? ) US author of The Invisibles (1903), narrated in retrospect from the Near Future, as an American-based secret society, The Invisible Hand, advances its plot to overthrow the Czarist government of Russia, aided by various Inventions of its Scientist membership, including an advanced submarine, which has been constructed by the Invisibles's leader, a ...
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 ...