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Friday 23 January 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 19 January 2026
Sponsor of the day: Ted Chiang
von Däniken, Erich
(1935-2026) Swiss author of a series of purportedly nonfiction books, beginning with Erinnerungen an die Zukunft (1968; trans Michael Heron as Chariots of the Gods? 1969), which, based on a mass of often suspect and internally inconsistent data, argues that the Earth was visited by at least one Alien spacefaring race before and at the dawn of historical time; thus, for example, the Great Pyramid of ...
Adams, Scott
(1957-2026) US author and cartoonist best known for the Dilbert strip published from 1989, which when at its best superbly (in terms of concept and accuracy of Satire rather than quality of drawing) satirized contemporary office life and corporate incompetence. As with most ambitious modern comic strips, it segues frequently into sf and fantasy tropes – such as Robot office workers, wish-fulfilling ...
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Film (2014). Twentieth Century Fox in association with TSG Entertainment. Directed by Matt Reeves. Written by Mark Bomback and Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver, based on characters created by Jaffa & Silver. Cast includes Jason Clarke, Toby Kebbell, Karin Konoval, Gary Oldman, Keri Russell, Andy Serkis, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Nick Thurston. 130 minutes. Colour, 3D. / Ten years after the events of Rise of the Planet of the Apes ...
Last Night
Film (1998). Rhombus Media presents in association with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Haut et Court and La Sept-Arte a film produced with the participation of Téléfilm Canada. Written and directed by Don McKellar. Cast includes Michael Barry, Geneviève Bujold, Jackie Burroughs, David Cronenberg, Robin Gammell, Arsinée Khanjian, Roberta Maxwell, Don McKellar, Sandra Oh, Sarah Polley, Callum Keith Rennie and Tracy ...
Walking Dead, The
Film (1936). Warner Brothers Pictures. Produced by Louis F Edelman (uncredited). Directed by Michael Curtiz. Written by Ewart Adamson, Peter Milne, Robert Andrews, and Lillie Hayward from an original story by Adamson and Joseph Fields. Cast includes Marguerite Churchill, Ricardo Cortez, Edmund Gwen and Boris Karloff. 66 minutes. Black and white. / Down-on-his-luck pianist John Elman (Karloff) is framed for a murder by gangsters led by Nolan (Cortez). ...
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 ...