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Sunday 23 January 2022
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.
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Corlett, William
(1938-2005) UK actor, playwright and author, in the latter capacity mostly for older children, though much of his later work, which openly explores the lives of gay men, was written for adults. He is of sf interest mainly for the Gate of Eden trilogy, comprising The Gate of Eden (1974), an essentially associational tale which he adapted for Television as The Gate of Eden (1979). The Land Beyond (1975), which involves Timeslips; and Return to the Gate (1975), in which the young protagonist of ...
Todd, G X
(? - ) UK librarian and author who is of sf interest for The Voices sequence beginning with The Defender (2017), set in a Near Future Disaster-riven massively depopulated America whose survivors, haunted by imperative voices in their heads, begin to behave in an atavistically "pre-conscious" manner, specifically linked by Todd to Julian Jaynes's arguments in The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (1976). Hunted (2018) carries ...
Sullivan, Sheila
(1927- ) Malaysian-born editor and author, in the UK from an early age, her critical nonfiction usually written as Sheila Bathurst. Her sf novel Summer Rising (1975; vt The Calling of Bara 1976) depicts a Post-Holocaust trek across a peaceful Ireland. [JC]
Mitchell, J A
(1845-1918) US editor – he founded Life magazine in 1883, editing it until his death – and author in various genres. The Romance of the Moon (1886 chap) is a fantasy for children; Mitchell's sf proper begins with The Last American: A Fragment from the Journal of Khan-Li, Prince of Dimph-Yoo-Chur and Admiral in the Persian Navy (1889 chap; exp 1902), a somewhat spoofish Satire in which a thirtieth-century Persian expedition visits a depopulated Nh-Yok (ie New York) described in ...
Beeching, Jack
Working name of UK poet and author John Charles Stuart Beeching (1922-2001), author (in collaboration with his first wife) of numerous Young Adult historical novels as James Barbary. His sf novel, The Dakota Project (1968), is a Near Future tale focusing on the eponymous, claustrophobic government project which prefigures outcomes ominous to a free society. [JC]
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. His first professional publication was the long sf-tinged poem "Carcajou Lament" (Winter 1960 [ie Autumn 1959] Triquarterly), though he only began publishing sf reviews in 1964 and sf proper with "A Man Must Die" in New Worlds for November 1966, where much of his earlier criticism also appeared. This criticism, despite some studiously ...