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Friday 20 June 2025
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.
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Forsyth, Frederick
(1938-2025) UK author who gained fame with his first novel, The Day of the Jackal (1971), and whose books are generally political thrillers. The Shepherd (1975 chap), however, is a sentimental Timeslip or ghost fantasy in which a pilot on Christmas Eve 1957 is saved from crashing by a World War Two pilot in an antique bomber: pilot and plane had been shot down on the Christmas Eve of 1943. ...
Archer, Lee
Ziff-Davis House Name used 1956-1957 on three stories in Amazing and Fantastic. "Escape Route" (March 1957 Amazing) is by Harlan Ellison. The authors of the others have not been identified, though "Peter Merton's Private Mint" (October 1956 Fantastic) has also, implausibly, been ...
Jensen, Norman
(1933- ) UK author of The Galactic Colonizers (1971), an sf adventure for Robert Hale Limited involving encounters with unusual Aliens. [JC]
Purple Claw, The
US Comic (1953). Minoan Publishing Corp. 3 issues. Artists include Ben Brown and David Gantz. Script writers include Charles Kuhn. 36 pages per issue, with three long strips (all featuring Dr Weir with the Purple Claw), a short text story and 1-2 short strips (some non-fiction). / Dr Jonathan Weir is severely injured when his plane crashes in an African jungle, but is cured by a local witch doctor using the purple claw, which is worn like a gauntlet; his ...
Swahn, Sven Christer
(1933-2005) Swedish poet, author, playwright, literary critic and translator. Immensely prolific, Swahn published a dozen collections of poetry including his first book, Eftermiddagens nycklar ["The Keys to Afternoon"] (coll 1956), five short story collections, thirteen adult novels, seventeen juvenile novels, a dozen or more Radio plays, eight books of literary overviews, essays and cultural history, a dozen ...
Robinson, Roger
(1943- ) UK computer programmer, bibliographer and publisher, active in UK Fandom for many years. The Writings of Henry Kenneth Bulmer (1983 chap; rev 1984 chap) is an exhaustive Bibliography of one of the most prolific sf writers, Kenneth Bulmer, and Who's Hugh?: An SF Reader's Guide to Pseudonyms (1987) is similarly exhaustive in its ...