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Thursday 13 August 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 10 August 2026
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Crowley, John
(1942-2026) US teacher and author who also worked in documentary films and television for some time beginning in 1966. His sf novels have had a considerable impact on the field, and his fantasies established him as a figure whose work courteously but deeply stretched the boundaries of genre literature. / His first novel, The Deep (1975), is set on a flat discworld resting on a pillar that extends beyond measurement into the circumambient galactic Deep, in which very few stars ...
Welby, Philip
Pseudonym of C D Davis (? - ), UK author of The Pleasure Domes of Sigma 93 (1978), a Space Opera for Robert Hale Limited. [JC]
Baird, Jon
(? - ) US film art director and author who is of some sf interest for The Explorers Guild, Volume One: A Passage to Shambhala (2015) with Kevin Costner, Stephen Meyer and Rick Ross; a second, fuller title-page in "period" gear, providing an informative continuation of the subtitle, reads Being an Introduction to that Secret Society and an Account of Certain Travelers in their Far-Faring Search for the Sacred City Yrs 1912-1918. Baird ...
Ballem, John
(1925-2010) Canadian author, most of whose fiction was nonfantastic, though his Technothrillers focused on the oil industry can verge on the fantastic, as does The Dirty Scenario (1974), and a few tales edge into the Near Future. Alberta secedes from Canada in The Judas Conspiracy (1976); in The Moon Pool (1978), indigenous nations claim independence. [JC]
Frank Reade Library
US Dime-Novel SF series, letter-size. 191 issues (though #188-#191 are reprints of #1-#4) 24 September 1892 to 8 August 1898, weekly to 8 June 1894 (#82), biweekly from then on. Cost five cents. Published by Frank Tousey, Publisher, New York. (Partial reissue 1902-1904, partial UK reprint.) All issues were printed on very poor paper and seldom survive in good condition; the 1902-1904 reissue, with coloured covers, is sometimes considered more desirable than ...
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 ...