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Thursday 19 June 2025
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.
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Forsyth, Frederick
(1938-2025) UK author who gained fame with his first novel, The Day of the Jackal (1971), and whose books are generally political thrillers. The Shepherd (1975 chap), however, is a sentimental Timeslip or ghost fantasy in which a pilot on Christmas Eve 1957 is saved from crashing by a World War Two pilot in an antique bomber: pilot and plane had been shot down on the Christmas Eve of 1943. ...
Maxwell, Ann
(1944- ) US author, also of detective thrillers as A E Maxwell and romances and romantic suspense as Elizabeth Lowell. She began publishing work of genre interest with Change (1975), set in a Near Future Earth simultaneously challenged by First Contact with investigative Aliens and a Mutation which bestows ...
Photon
US letter-size saddle-stapled Cinema Fanzine. Publisher and editor: Mark Frank. 27 issues, appearing on a highly erratic schedule from 1963 to 1977. / Originally launched as a mature alternative to Famous Monsters of Filmland, this well-remembered fanzine featured various aspects of Horror and sf cinema, including articles on director Tod Browning and ...
Szafran, Gene
(1941-2011) American artist. After attending Detroit's Art School of the Society of Arts and Crafts, Szafran worked as an artist in that city until he moved to New York City in 1967 and began receiving some high-profile assignments, including album covers for the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and Rhinoceros and artwork for magazines like Playboy and Cosmopolitan. He began producing sf book covers in 1970, usually featuring stylized human figures: one early cover of note, for the ...
Sweet Valerian
Japanese animated tv series (2004). Madhouse. Created by CLAMP. Directed by Hiroaki Sakurai. Written by Sayuri Ōba. Voice cast includes Yu Asakawa, Mika Kanai, Ami Koshimizu, Yūichi Nagashima, Kaori Nazuka and Kazuki Yao. 26 four-minute episodes. Colour. / In Asialand City the evil but amateurish Stress Team (Yao) fly about in a wonky flying saucer (see UFOs), seeking out the stressed; on ...
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 ...