SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Thursday 12 February 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 9 February 2026
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Carver, Jeffrey A
(1949-2026) US author who began publishing sf with "... Of No Return" in Fiction Magazine for 1974. His first novel, Seas of Ernathe (1976), which serves as an introduction to the loose Star Rigger sequence of Space Operas, showed early signs of a love of plot and thematic complexity which would take him some time, and several novels, to control. The continuation, Star Rigger's Way (1978), for instance, combines quest ...
Milligan, Spike
Working name of Indian-born Irish author and comic Terence Alan Milligan (1918-2002), who first became famous for his central role as both principal author and one of the stars of the Radio comedy The Goon Show (initially Crazy People) broadcast on BBC Radio from 1951 to 1960. These episodes generally exhibit surreal rather than science-fictional humour; partial exceptions in the form of explicit sf/fantasy Parodies include ...
Megalopolis
Film (2024). American Zoetrope/Caesar Films. Written, co-produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Cast includes Adam Driver, Nathalie Emmanuel, Giancarlo Esposito, Lawrence Fishburne, Dustin Hoffman, Shia LaBeouf, Audrey Plaza and Jon Voight. 138 minutes. Colour. / In an Alternate-History twenty-first century, America has developed along the lines of the Roman Republic, and the capital, New Rome, is run by a group of patrician families. The ...
Predator
Film (1987). Amercent/American Entertainment/Twentieth Century Fox. Directed by John McTiernan. Written by Jim Thomas, John Thomas. Cast includes Elpidia Carrillo, Bill Duke, Kevin Peter Hall, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Carl Weathers. 106 minutes. Colour. / A special-forces group undertaking a commando-style rescue mission in South America clashes bloodily with guerrillas and then very much more bloodily with the Predator: an intelligent Alien (Hall) that ...
Haddon, Cole
(? - ) Australian screenwriter, journalist and author, mostly in US, initially of interest for his creator/producer role in the Television series Dracula (2013 10 episodes), showrunner Daniel Knauf. He is of stronger sf interest for his first novel, Psalms for the End of the World (2022), which is set in various venues – from a 1960s California where reality ...
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 ...