SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Tuesday 13 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 12 January 2026
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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 ...
Lensman [series]
Influential Space Opera series created by E E Smith (whom see for full discussion). Other authors of stories set in the Lensman universe are William Ellern, Hideyuki Furuhashi and David Kyle, the last focusing on the three Alien allies of the main series hero Kim Kinnison who like him ...
Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, The
Japanese animated film (2010); original title Suzumiya Haruhi no Shōshitsu. Based on the Light Novel by Nagaru Tanigawa. Kyoto Animation. Directed by Tatsuya Ishihara and Yasuhiro Takemoto. Written by Fumihiko Shimo. Voice cast includes Minori Chihara, Yūko Gotō, Aya Hirano, Daisuke Ono and Tomokazu Sugita. 162 minutes. Colour. / A sequel to the popular ...
Metal Gear
Videogame (1987). Konami. Designed by Hideo Kojima. Platforms: MSX (1987); rev NES (1987); C64, DOS (1990); Phone (2004). / The original Metal Gear is notable largely for having popularized the idea of an action-based Videogame whose gameplay revolves around stealthy infiltration. (The World War Two action game ...
Horstman, Thomas
(? - ) US author of a borderline sf tale, The Kessler Alliance (1980), in which a cadre of Nazis hopes to rule the world as Hitler might have (see Hitler Wins for discussion of genuine Alternate Histories on these lines); a sense of Paranoia is duly stirred. [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. 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 ...