SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Sunday 15 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
Sponsor of the day: John Howard
Box, The
Film (2009). Warner Bros. Pictures in association with Radar Pictures and Media Rights Capital presents a Darko Entertainment/Lin Pictures production. Written and directed by Richard Kelly. Based on "Button, Button" (June 1970 Playboy) by Richard Matheson. Cast includes Cameron Diaz, Frank Langella and James Marsden. 115 minutes. Colour. / The wife of a NASA scientist employed on the ...
Hazel, Paul
(1944- ) US author whose Finnbranch Trilogy makes use of some sf devices, though it is primarily a Celtic fantasy about a hero – and underworld god – named Finn, told in a dense, difficult style which nevertheless has very considerable power. The first two volumes, Yearwood (1980) and Undersea (1982), are moderately orthodox, though recounted with unconventional intensity, but the third, Winterking (1985), is ...
Monkey Punch
(1937-2019) Working name of Kazuhiko Katō, a Japanese Manga artist, largely remembered for a crime caper series (see Crime and Punishment) with frequent crossovers into Equipoise and the Technothriller. His first few strips were published as by Kazuhiko Katō, a pseudonym written with different characters, but pronounced the same ...
Paprika
Film (2006). Sony Pictures Entertainment presents a Madhouse Production. Directed by Satoshi Kon. Written by Satoshi Kon and Seishi Minakami, based on the novel Paprika (1993) by Yasutaka Tsutsui. Cast (voice only) includes Tōru Emori, Tōru Furuya, Megumi Hayashibara, Katsunosuke Hori, Akio Ōtsuka, Daisuke Sakaguchi and Kōichi Yamadera. Music by Susumu ...
Ponson du Terrail, Pierre-Alexis
(1829-1871) French author, mostly of popular fiction, best known for the character Rocambole, an Antihero who prefigures many similar adventurers who begin their careers as criminals and end up working, usually in secret, to defend society, a list which includes Maurice LeBlanc's Arsène Lupin, Doc Savage, Leslie Charteris's The Saint, and others; ...
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 ...