SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Saturday 14 March 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 March 2026
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Shi Nian Taiwan
["Ten Years Taiwan"] Taiwanese film (2018). Golden Scene, Joint Studio, Ten Years Pictures. Directed by Lekal Sumi Cilangasan, Rina B. Tsou, Lu Po-shun, Hsieh Pei-ju, Lau Kek-huat. Cast includes Liao Bo-yan, Lu Dong-yang, Karolyn Kieke, Jane Liao, Li Li-rong, Alina Tsai, Wang Tsung-wei, Li Wen-he, Cheng Yu-chieh and Cheng Zheng-jun. Screenplay by the directors. 108 minutes. Colour. / An anthology piece of five Near-Future ...
Tears in the Rain
South African short film (2017). Andrew MacDonald Films. Directed by Christopher Grant Harvey. Written by Harvey and Evan James Demskey. Cast includes Sean Cameron Michael and Russel Savadier. 11 minutes. Colour. / While most filmed fan fiction is limited in exposure to Conventions and variously popular corners of the internet, this tribute to Blade Runner (1982) played at film festivals around the world, ...
Ryner, Han
Pseudonym of Algerian-born French philosopher and author Jacques Élie Henri Ambroise Ner (1861-1938), which he adopted in 1898, after having published fairly widely under his own name. His philosophical position, as articulated in many articles and books, combined epicurean stoicism about the purpose of life with anarchist political views which led to his taking a pacifist stand in World War One, a position reflected in Les Pacifiques ["The ...
Ubukata Tow
(1977- ) Pen-name of a Japanese author and scriptwriter who often writes the prose and Anime or Manga versions of his stories, and who maintains strong connections to the world of computer games. Raised largely in Singapore and Nepal, Ubukata returned to his native Japan to complete his education in his teens. He dropped out of Waseda University's department of literature shortly after winning ...
Collier, James Lincoln
(1928- ) US author of works for children, many of them nonfiction, and the best-known of them being several historical novels written with his brother, Christopher Collier (1930-2020). Of sf interest is Planet Out of the Past (1983), whose young protagonists on the planet Pleisto find relics of a human prehistoric society; and The Empty Mirror (2004), a Doppelganger fantasy. He was the nephew of Slater ...
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 ...