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Saturday 7 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 6 February 2026
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Sallis, James
(1944-2026) US musician, poet and author, briefly active in New Worlds during its Michael Moorcock-directed New-Wave phase; he began to publish work of genre interest in this context with "Kazoo" (August 1967 New Worlds) and co-edited the magazine 1968-1969. His clearly acknowledged models in the French avant garde and the gnomic brevity of much of his work ...
Murphy, Pat
(1955- ) Working name of US author Patrice Ann Murphy (1955- ), who began publishing work of genre interest with "No Mother Near" in Galaxy for October 1975, though the first story she wishes to acknowledge was "Nightbird at the Window" in Chrysalis 5 (anth 1979) edited by Roy Torgeson. Her first novel was the obscurely published The Shadow Hunter (1982; rev ...
Gilstrap, John
(1957- ) US screenwriter and author, mostly of nonfantastic thrillers, including the long Jonathan Grave sequence beginning with No Mercy (2009) [series not listed below]. He is of sf interest for the first instalment of the projected Virginia Emerson sequence, Crimson Phoenix (2021), which provides at first a Technothriller-inflected conspectus of ...
Serafini, Luigi
(1949- ) Italian architect, artist, designer and author who has consistently focused his work, in whatever medium, on imaginary constructs, whether organic entities, buildings, furniture, artworks and Illustrations, or books-as-objects. Of sf interest is the extraordinary Codex Seraphinianus (1981 2vols; more than one varying edition; most significant rev 2013), a heavily illustrated pseudo-encyclopedia of an apparent ...
de Camp, Catherine Crook
(1907-2000) US author, married to L Sprague de Camp from 1939 until her death, and who served as his manager and accountant from the beginning of their partnership; additionally, over and above their several registered collaborations, she worked with her husband on many works released by publishers as by him alone, a lifetime collaboration he in fact openly acknowledged. The Raymond Z Gallun Award, for "outstanding contributions ...
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 ...