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Tuesday 13 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 12 January 2026
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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 ...
Raiden, Edward
(? - ) US author of The Gogglers: A Political Satire (1967), an sf Satire whose astronaut protagonist, landing on the planet Goggle, finds that the behaviour of its Alien inhabitants has been distorted by the influence of a previous visitor from Earth. The satire focuses on Politics, race (see Race in SF) and women (see ...
Tenkū no shiro Laputa
Japanese animated film (1986; vt Laputa: Castle in the Sky; Castle in the Sky; Laputa: The Flying Island). Studio Ghibli. Directed and written by Hayao Miyazaki. Voice cast includes Kotoe Hatsui, Mayumi Tanaka, Minori Terada and Keiko Yokozawa. 126 minutes. Colour. / This film is inspired by the flying Island of Laputa in Jonathan Swift's ...
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
Film (1948). Universal-International Pictures. Directed by Charles T Barton. Produced by Robert Arthur. Screenplay by John Grant, Robert Lees and Frederic I Rinaldo, using characters created by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley and Bram Stoker. Cast includes Bud Abbott, Lenore Aubert, Charles Bradstreet, Lon Chaney Jr, Lou Costello, Bela Lugosi, Jane Randolph, Glenn Strange and ...
Decima Vittima, La
Film (1965; vt The Tenth Victim). Champion/Concordia. Directed by Elio Petri. Written by Petri, Ennio Flaiano, Tonino Guerra, Giorgio Salvione, based on "Seventh Victim" (April 1953 Galaxy) by Robert Sheckley. Cast includes Ursula Andress, Elsa Martinelli, Marcello Mastroianni and Massimo Serato. 92 minutes. Colour. / This French-Italian coproduction is based loosely on Sheckley's story about a future world where, ...
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 ...