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Monday 10 February 2025
Welcome to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Fourth Edition. Some sample entries appear below. Click here for the Introduction; here for the masthead; here for 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 10 February 2025
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Anthologies
Before the late 1940s, sf short stories, novellas and novelettes (see Hugo for definitions) were largely restricted to Magazines. (Magazines are, of course, a form of anthology, but they are not so counted in this encyclopedia.) Since then, increasingly, many readers have been introduced to sf through stories collected in books. Books are less fragile, kept in print longer, available in libraries and (especially for young readers in ...
Schätzing, Frank
(1957- ) German author initially best known for Der Schwarm (2004; trans Sally-Ann Spencer as The Swarm 2007), a vivid expression of Horror in SF: beginning off Peru, ocean currents begin actively to assault and drown humans, governed by a vast Hive Mind dwelling Under the Sea (see Gaia) whose ...
Dixon, Thomas, Jr
(1864-1946) US Baptist minister and author whose The Fall of a Nation: A Sequel to The Birth of a Nation (1915-1916 National Sunday Magazine; 1916) graphically depicts the Near Future Invasion and conquest of the USA by the Imperial Confederation of Europe, dominated by Germany. After years of occupation, a singularly ferocious US womanhood helps the men of the USA expel the enemy. The subtitle refers to the film ...
Beck, Clyde F
(1912-1986) US fan and critic who wrote the first work of criticism devoted to American sf: Hammer and Tongs (coll 1937 chap). This is assembled from four essays and reviews contributed to The Science Fiction Critic – an early Fanzine edited by Beck's brother Claire P Beck – with a newly written author's preface. Beck also contributed occasionally to other sf/fantasy magazines such as the ...
Wright, Stephen
(1946- ) US author who remains best known for Meditations in Green (1983), a nonfantastic novel set in Vietnam; he is of direct sf interest for M31: A Family Romance (1988),a Fabulation in an agglutinative style reminiscent of that used by William Gaddis (1922-1998) in The Recognitions (1955). Abandoned by their parents – Dot and Dash, who claim to be Aliens descended ...
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 ...