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Tuesday 10 February 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 February 2026
Sponsor of the day: Andy Richards of Cold Tonnage Books
Carver, Jeffrey A
(1949-2026) US author who began publishing sf with "... Of No Return" in Fiction Magazine for 1974. His first novel, Seas of Ernathe (1976), which serves as an introduction to the loose Star Rigger sequence of Space Operas, showed early signs of a love of plot and thematic complexity which would take him some time, and several novels, to control. The continuation, Star Rigger's Way (1978), for instance, combines quest ...
Mesnay, Henry
(? - ) French author of La Redoutable secret (1948; trans anon as The Formidable Secret 1952), a Lost World tale set in the mountains of Asia, where the manuscript of a survivor of the fall of Atlantis is discovered far Underground. [JC]
Bird in the Head, A
Short US film (1946). Columbia Pictures. Directed by Edward Bernds. Written by Bernds. Cast includes Vernon Dent, Larry Fine, Curly Howard, Moe Howard, Frank Lackteen, Art Miles (uncredited) and Robert Williams. 16 minutes. Black and white. / Hired to put wallpaper on the walls of a room in the home of the Mad Scientist Professor Panzer (Dent), the Three Stooges (at the time Fine, Curly Howard, and Moe Howard) do a predictably inept job and are ...
Satterfield, Susan
(? - ) US author who began to publish work of genre interest with "The Change" in Eldritch Tales for Fall 1993, and whose novella, Mirror Images (2002 chap), presents a nightmare world or Dimension in which everything is seen anew, to Satirical effect. [JC]
Twilight Imperium
Board Game (1997). Fantasy Flight Games (FFG). Designed by Christian Petersen. / Twilight Imperium is a complex game of galactic conquest, scientific development, economic management, colonization and trade, played on a two-dimensional map with miniature models. The setting is a somewhat generic Space Opera in which a Galactic Empire ruled by a benevolent but arrogant race has ...
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 ...